


Ragnarok

by ru_salki99 (orphan_account)



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Reality, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ru_salki99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four years into the future, the Intersect has become volatile and highly dangerous. After he escapes it falls to his old handlers John Casey and Sarah Walker to find him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2009 scifibigbang
> 
> BETA: the wonderful prlrocks :)

“So what the hell am I gonna do here without you?” Chuck asked with a huge grin, “Who’s gonna play Call of Duty with me and help me defeat the Large mart A-Holes?”

Morgan grinned and slapped Chuck on the back, “Well you could always spend more time with your lady,” he suggested, “Or if your really desperate, I’m sure John won’t mind becoming your new gaming buddy. In fact, something tells me he would relish the opportunity.”

Chuck frowned, wondering just what the hell Morgan meant by that. As he looked over to where Casey was prowling the perimeter. He couldn’t imagine him wanting to sit down and play video games with him. So where Morgan got that idea from was beyond him, but then, Awesome had told them all that everyone at the Buy More was convinced Casey was in love with him. He snorted in amusement at that. Hell Casey barely liked him, but with the way Casey constantly hung about him, it wasn’t really a surprise that that would be the conclusion they would all come to.

“Hey look,” Morgan said, nodding in Casey’s direction. He was talking in hushed tones to Sarah, and they were obviously arguing about something, “You think he’s trying to convince her to dump you?”

Chuck sighed, “Morgan, Casey is not in love with me. Hell, I’m not even sure if he’s even capable of such a complex emotion. So please, just drop it will you? I don’t want to get into an argument with you, not tonight.”

They were currently in the courtyard attending Morgan and Anna’s going away party. Since they had quit the Buy More, it was really the only suitable place to have it as Morgan’s Mom’s house was too small. Also, having become close to Morgan over the past couple of years, not thinking of him as the second little brother she never had, Ellie had all out insisted that Morgan let her organise his party.

It was a warm and clear night, the music was playing loudly, the lanterns were illuminating the darkness, the food and beer flowing allowing everyone to have a good time. Everyone bar Sarah and Casey.

They were standing on opposite sides of the courtyard, their eyes scanning the outline of the building and the darkness beyond. What they were looking for, Chuck wasn’t very sure, but the way they were standing, hands by their hips, lips moving ever so slightly as they communicated with each other, both of them on high alert made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Glancing in the direction of his father, it seemed that he too had noticed the shift in the mood. However, it seems that looking at Stephen had been the wrong thing to do as when he looked back at Casey, he was talking on his phone, a grim look on his face and staring right at Chuck. Staring right back, Chuck was able to make out two words:

“I understand.”

Panic setting in, Chuck turned to go find his Dad, but before he could, Sarah grabbed his hand and started pulling him in the direction of Casey.

“We have to go now,” she hissed at him.

“What? Why?” he asked.

“Cause they’re coming to extract you,” she explained.

Chuck looked up just in time to see Casey reach out an arm and wrap it round his shoulder while pulling out his gun.

“Oh God,” was all Chuck managed to get out as they began walking out the exit.

But it was too late. They hadn’t moved quick enough.

Casey got hit on the chest with a tranquilliser dart and while that wasn’t enough to knock him out, it did make him falter slightly allowing someone else to swoop in and deliver a hard kick to Sarah’s face, throwing her away from Chuck.

Casey jumped up and grabbed Chuck, trying to run with him, but again he wasn’t quick enough as someone else grabbed him first. Not even hesitating, Casey lifted his gun and shot the assailant’s hand away, two fingers flying off.

People started screaming after that. Chuck just stood there, watching as his handlers both battled to keep him free and willing the Intersect to kick in so that he could defend himself.

“Charles!”

Chuck spun to see his father coming at him, an extra gun in hand. But before he could reach Chuck, another agent who was standing at the other side of the courtyard open fired, the bullet going right through Stephen Bartowski’s left shoulder, forcing him to the ground.

Chuck froze, vaguely aware of both Sarah and Casey turning to see where the shot had come from and at the same time being over powered by their attackers.

“Run!” Sarah shouted as she was forced to the ground.

“Run Chuck!” Casey joined in as he was hit with another three tranq darts.

Chuck knew he should run, that he should fight his way out of this mess. But his father was now, coughing up blood, all the while pleading with his eyes for Chuck to run.

Finally, managing to get his feet to do what everyone seemed to want them to do, Chuck spun and made to run. But it was just too late. Far too late. He was hit in the neck with a tranquilliser at the same time as two large bodies tackled him to the ground.

Pinned down, he lifted up his head, seeing the same black figures holding Ellie and Morgan at bay with their automatic rifles, Sarah and Casey unconscious to his left and his father bleeding to death on his right.

“Dad,” he whispered, his blood covered and scarily still body being the last thing he saw before he passed out.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

_ FOUR YEARS LATER _

Casey was rudely awakened by the lights being turned on, the buzzing sound of electricity assaulting his ears, fluorescent white light burning into his eyes.

“Get up!” the guard ordered through the peep box.

Sighing, Casey got up and assumed the position, which was him kneeling on the floor with his hands clasped behind his head. Once the guards outside were satisfied that he wasn’t going to attack them, they opened the door and stepped inside. One of them, who Casey noticed was new, held up a cattle prod type device to his neck – Casey had been victim to it on more than one occasion so wasn’t about to try his luck this time – while the other stepped behind him and began to cuff his hands behind his back.

“So what’s your name?” Casey asked the new guy.

“Franklin,” he said hesitantly.

“Franklin?” Casey asked, “That’s a good, strong, American name right there.”

“Yeah, not like that dirty Mick name you got there, Colonel?” the one behind him hissed as he yanked on his arms, making him stand up.

Casey ignored him though, and continued to talk to Franklin, “I feel kinda rude you know. Here we are, meeting for the first time and I’m getting dragged away before we get the chance to properly bond. How about when I get back I give you a proper welcome?” he asked with a wink.

Franklin, although wielding the cattle prod, didn’t seem to know how to react to that. But the other guard did, whipping out his billy club and hitting Casey square in the face with it.

“Behave,” he said, ignoring Casey’s bleeding nose as he dragged him away.

Casey had no idea where he was going or why it was happening in the middle of the night. He was only allowed out of his cell for yard time and that was usually just after breakfast, not at four am in the morning. He wasn’t even allowed out of his cell to see visitors. Not that he ever got any, but still, this was incredibly unusual. But until he found out what was happening, it was best to try and act as casual as possible.

He was taken to the showers, where he was hosed down and given a delightful cavity search before being given, not an orange jumpsuit like a regular prisoner would’ve been given, but a dark blue one.

Once he was fully dressed, he had his head covered like some kind of terrorist (although in the eyes of the government, he supposed he was) and bundled into a car.

He knew better than to talk, to ask questions, so he kept his mouth shut and counted instead, counted the second, the turns made, the amount of stops, so that should he have to, he would be able to find his way again. He doubted he would have to though, but it was habit and so he counted.

He had been in prison for four years now. After… after Chuck, he had woken up in a cell. Sarah in the one opposite. He had been sure it was the Castle, but they never got the chance to see any further than the cells they were in. He tried to talk to her, but their cells were soundproof, so all they could do was exchange apologetic and supportive looks before they were both knocked out again and transported to their new homes.

Casey hadn’t heard anything of her since then, didn’t even know if she was alive or dead or if she was even in prison or not. After all, the CIA may have dealt with her differently. No one told him anything. But then, the only people he saw now, were the guards at this prison. He didn’t even get to see any of the other inmates, not that they would know anything anyway. Hell, they didn’t even know what he was there for, why would they know anything about his partner? All they knew was that he was a traitor. And that’s all that mattered. One of the guards once asked him if he regretted it, turning on his country. And although he had to take a second or two to think about it, the answer was no. Deep down, what he did, he knew was the right thing to do. He may have failed, may not have actually been able to follow through with their plan, but he certainly didn’t regret it.

Who knew what had happened to Chuck, to his family. The pain they were all likely suffering through was something he really wished he could’ve spared them. Actually, that was probably his only regret. But there wasn’t much he could do about it now, not with him suck in the back of a car, handcuffed and blindfolded and no doubt, heavily guarded.

After about a ninety minute drive (this was an approximate guess), the car finally stopped and he was instructed to get out. It was raining wherever he was, he knew, because he could hear it loud and clear hitting off the ground, while the pitter-patter of droplets hitting on an umbrella could be heard above him. He was quickly escorted inside and along a corridor (thirty six strides), before the sound of a heavy door being pulled back hit his ears. Twenty three more strides and he was being pushed down into a seat, his hands uncuffed and recuffed so they were in front of him, and then he was told to sit still.

He could sense someone to his left, someone with a smaller frame than he. And he could smell a somewhat fragrant soap, indicating that the person was female.

However, before he got the chance to try and figure out who she was, someone scraped back the chair opposite them and sat down. Then abruptly, his hood was yanked off his face and he was once again blinded by bright fluorescent light. It took him a couple of seconds to adjust, but once he did, he was more than a little shocked to find himself sitting across from General Clark, with Walker by his side.

Casey did his best not to turn and stare at Sarah, but he couldn’t help but glance. She looked so much smaller than she had the last time he had seen her. Her hair had been cut into a short bob, more brown now than blonde and she had lost a lot of weight, making her look unbelievably ill. She was wearing a confused frown, obviously not having a clearer idea as to why they were here than he did, especially since she was glancing back at him.

Casey probably looked rather different to her too. His head was shaved, almost making him look like he belonged in a concentration camp, he was only allowed to shave his face once a week and so instead of his usual clean shaven look, his face was rather stubbly, then of course, there was the two black eyes and badly bruised nose that he no doubt had courtesy of his guard earlier.

General Clark just sat and stared them both for a moment, and Casey noticed, that he looked for all intents and purposes like he hadn’t slept properly in weeks.

It had been a long time since Casey had last seen him, not since he had last been in the Middle East, so he was more than a little surprised to see him now.

“Leave us,” he said eventually, waiting for all the guards to leave the room before speaking again, “We have a problem. The Intersect has escaped.”

Casey just stared at him, not really knowing what to say to that and so he was glad that Sarah was there to respond for him.

“I’m sorry?” she said, “Just what exactly do you mean by that?”

General Clark sighed before handing them both a folder each.

“Since his extractment four years ago, the Intersect has been given regular upgrades, working with us to provide a much more advanced alert system. However, there were some side affects.”

Casey looked up from the report he’d been skimming about The Intersect’s successful advancement, “What kind of side affects?”

“With each upgrade and series of testing, the Intersect…”

“Chuck,” Sarah corrected.

“Chuck,” he repeated, “Became increasingly unstable. Often not being able to communicate in any kind of language that we were familiar with,” he explained much to their horror, “However, he did have his lucid moments where he would be able to pass on relevant information to our team and so he remained useful.”

“Useful?” Sarah asked, only just beating Casey to it, both of them feeling more and more uncomfortable.

The General however ignored them and carried on with his story, “Six months ago, Chuck became even more erratic, having violent outbursts, harming himself and writing cryptic messages all over the surfaces of his quarters.”

“What kind of cryptic messages?” Casey asked.

“Random words that make no sense, in a number of languages, equations that none of our physicists were able to work out… not even Orion was able to translate what Chuck was working on.”

“Orion’s alive?” Casey asked in surprise. Last he remembered was seeing him bleed to death.

“Yes, he’s alive. We had believed that it was him, who Chuck had ran away to find. However, he’s made no attempt to contact him.”

Casey and Sarah both frowned some more before looking back down at their folders.

Sitting back in his chair, the General watched them both for a minute before speaking again.

“Six weeks ago, Chuck’s day shift handlers came into the base to find not only all eight members of the security team dead at their stations, the night shift handlers lying in a pool of their own blood inside of Chuck’s quarters with the word ‘Ragnarok’ written on the floor in their blood.”

Sarah and Casey looked not only horrified, but extremely confused as to why or how Chuck could kill one person, let alone ten.

“Orion has since admitted to installing the Intersect with martial arts imprints as well as other talents such as how to handle a gun or make a bomb,” he added, “He’s a highly unstable lethal weapon, so that is why I’m giving you two the job of finding him.”

“Us?” Sarah asked him, “But why? Any why now? Six weeks after the fact?”

“We were reluctant to have either of you involved because of your history with him, however, the teams that General Beckman sent after him have been extremely unsuccessful, in that he has eliminated all four teams,” he explained as he opened up his briefcase and pulled out a few photographs, “He has also killed two others, one an aid to the Chief of Staff at the Whitehouse, the other, a retired federal agent. Then at twenty one hundred hours last night, General Beckman was found in her office,” he said, throwing the photo of her down onto the desk.

Sarah gasped at the picture while Casey felt his blood run cold, noting the ‘Ragnarok’ written next to her head, “He killed her?” he asked.

“No,” Clark said, “But she’s in a coma, unlikely to wake up.”

Sarah and Casey were both silent again, glancing from the picture of Beckman back to the folders in front of them.

“He trusts you both,” Clark said abruptly, “He may not hide away from or kill you in the same way he has others.”

“But he might,” Casey reasoned, “If he’s that unstable he might not hesitate to kill us.”

Clark sighed, “If you don’t want to job, you can just go back to your cells and enjoy the rest of your life staring at the same four walls.”

“And if we do?” Sarah asked.

“If you do, and you deliver the Intersect to us, dead or alive, I’m not particularly bothered at this juncture, then once your finished, you will have your freedom again.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

You got any idea what this Ragnarok mean?” Casey asked Sarah as they sat in the back of the car that was taking them to Chuck’s home for the past four years.

After their meeting with the General, where they both agreed to find Chuck in return for their freedom, they had been taken to clean up, given a clean set of clothes, Sarah a very smart charcoal grey skirted suit, Casey a black one before being flown to Nevada, allowing them a couple of hours in the air to study Chuck’s file.

“It’s Norse mythology,” Sarah said, “Ragnarok is the end of the world, the destruction of the nine levels of the world and all its beings. But in terms of why Chuck would be writing it, it’s probably a code name for some sort of operation.”

Casey grunted in agreement, “So we just need to figure out what this Ragnarok is and we’ll find him. Easy.”

Sarah gave him an exasperated look, “You honestly think it’ll be that easy?”

“Of course not. Doesn’t stop me from being optimistic though.”

“Since when have you ever been optimistic.”

“Since the day I prayed for something other than strawberry jello with my dinner and I got orange instead,” he said with a grin, “I’m a changed man.”

Sarah couldn’t help but smile at him, “So what happened to your face anyway?”

“I walked into a door,” he told her with a smile before sighing, “I was trying to make the new guy uncomfortable and my regular guard took offence.”

Sarah nodded, “Maybe he was just jealous,” she joked, making Casey smile.

“So, what happened to you? You look like you’ve been on hunger strike or something.”

“Thanks,” she deadpanned.

“Well it’s true,” he said with a shrug, “I’m not saying you’re not pretty anymore, I mean, the brown hair is way better than the blonde, but really Walker, you don’t look well.”

Sarah sighed and turned to stare our of the window, “That’s because I wasn’t.”

Casey looked at her with a frown, wondering just what she meant by that, but didn’t push it, knowing that if Sarah didn’t want to talk about something she wouldn’t.

“We’re here,” Sarah said as they pulled over next to what looked like an old disused outhouse. Very subtle. They were however miles from anywhere and considering that the employees were shuttled to and from here so that people wouldn’t notice their cars, meant that Chuck had had to walk through the desert to get to the nearest town and steal a car, and from the info they had received, no care in the area had been stolen in over eight weeks. So how did he do it?

“Colonel, Agent Walker,” a young NSA agent said as he shook their hands, “If you’d like to come with me, I’ll show you the assets quarters.”

Both of them gave each other a look that only they could recognise, before following the agent down into the belly of the compound. They travelled down in an elevator, stepping out into an octagon shaped room, four of the sides having long corridors leading off of them. It looked very similar to a prison, only cleaner. There were two suited men sitting at the desk in the centre of the room and they both gave Sarah and Casey cold stares.

“This is Agent Fowler and Agent McKenzie,” the young agent said, “They were the Asset’s day time handlers. They uh…”

“We found Patterson and Wilson,” Agent Fowler interrupted.

“Really?” Casey asked, not really liking the attitude coming off of them.

“We’ll need to talk to you after we’ve finished with his room,” Sarah told them, preventing whatever argument was about to break out.

“Sure,” McKenzie said, “Anything to help catch that little bastard.”

Sarah and Casey halted, both of them a little taken aback by that as the Chuck they knew, was anything but a bastard.

However, they had a job to do, and so followed the NSA agent down one of the corridors to the room on the left.

“Just… just prepare yourself,” he said before punched in the security code and standing back.

Sarah and Casey hesitated for a moment, before taking a step into the room. They had both seen the pictures, had both known that Chuck had written all over the walls, but neither of them had expected to witness the room in front of them.

“How long did it take him to do this?” Casey asked as his eyes travelled over the equation covered walls.

“He’s been doing it since his second week here.”

“What was he doing the first week?” Sarah asked.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Sarah and Casey asked together.

“Yeah, he just sat in the corner, only getting up to go to the John. He was almost catatonic. And then, all of a sudden, he stood up and started writing,” he explained.

“And none of you have been able to figure out what it means?” Sarah asked in disbelief.

“No, we…”

“It’s an escape plan,” Casey said, reaching out and tracing one of the equations with his fingers, “He was trying to figure out a way to beat your security and get out.”

“How do you know that?” Sarah asked him.

“I’ve seen it before,” Casey explained, “On the back of his Tron poster. He had all kinds of equations figured out about running away.”

“You never told me that.”

Casey shrugged, “I thought it was gobbledygook. Something for one of his games. It’s only now, in hindsight, with four years of nothing better to do, that I figured it out what all his muttering about times and opportunities was about.”

“Well, this escape plan,” the agent said, “You got any idea where he was planning on going?”

“No,” Casey said, “But I tell you one thing…”

“We need that poster,” Sarah finished for him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

McKenzie and Fowler hadn’t been very helpful.

Most of the time they had spoken with them was taken up with them both bad mouthing Chuck, calling him a weirdo, a psycho, all sorts of other unsavoury names that were much worse that actually had Sarah having to hold Casey back. Well, by holding back, what was really meant was placing a calming hand upon his arm. Neither McKenzie nor Fowler seemed to notice though, both of them too caught up in their hatred for Chuck.

Sarah couldn’t blame them though. If she didn’t know the real Chuck, didn’t know what a sweet guy he was and she’d been in their position, she’d have been pissed too. As it was though, she was just worried. Worried about Chuck, where he was, what he was doing, what he was going to do next and why he was doing it. She wasn’t sure they would find him. If he didn’t want them to find him then they wouldn’t. And if he did, well then they should probably be very worried.

But right now, while they were driven to Los Angeles, all they could do was study his file some more and watch old footage of him in his quarters, pacing back and forward, his hair getting long and untamed, with a beard to match, watch him scribble on the walls occasionally, before banging his head violently, until he had to get sedated.

They also watched some videos of his psychology sessions, he’d had one a week since his ‘incarceration’ four years ago, it would’ve been impossible to watch them all, so they had to make do with a random selection.

So far, in the ones they had watched, half of them had had Chuck completely lucid and cooperative, the other half he was sitting, curled up into a ball and rocking back and forward. Needless to say, she and Casey had both been very upset by them. It was their fault that it had happened to him. Had they stood their ground and told him that he couldn’t go to Morgan’s party, then he’d probably be free right now. But they were too weak, and neither of them had been able to resist those puppy dog eyes when he’d thought he was going to miss out.

“So,” Casey said as they entered the city boundaries, “You heard from your father?”

“He died three years ago,” she said, “Or at least, that’s what I was told. What about you? You spoken to you Mom?”

Casey shook his head, “She knew I had a dangerous job, so probably thinks I’m dead. Not sure if I can bring myself to make her face all that pain again.”

Sarah frowned at him, “Well, if it was me, I would want to know what happened to you. If you were actually dead or not. Otherwise, I would never get the closure I need to move on.”

Casey sighed, “I’ll have to think about it,” he told her, “So what did they say happened to your Dad?”

“Got mixed up with the wrong crowd,” she said with a soft smile, “To be honest, I wouldn’t imagine him going out any other way.”

“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” Casey said, making Sarah smile at him before turning back to the current video of Chuck that they were watching.

 _”So tell me about your handlers,” the psychologist said._

 _“Which ones?” Chuck asked, resting his bearded chin on his hand, and looking thoroughly bored, “I’ve had, what five different sets of handlers now… so you’ll need to be more specific.”_

 _“Sarah Walker and John Casey,” the psychologist clarified._

 _Chuck slowly lowered his eyes from where he’d been looking up at the camera and looked right at the man in front of him, “Why?”_

 _The psychologist shrugged, “You’ve never talked about them before,” he said, “You’ve talked at length about everyone else from your life, why not them?”_

 _Chuck was silent for a moment before speaking, “I’m tired,” he said, “I’d like to go back to my room now.”_

 _“Chuck…”_

 _“If you wanna know so much about them, then go interrogate them. They’re both being held in Penitentiary One in West Virginia,” Chuck snapped._

 _“Chuck,” the psychologist said gently, “Do you blame them for you being moved to this facility?”_

 _Chuck gave a sly grin, that was actually kind of creepy, “I’d like to go back to my room now,” he said so quietly it was almost inaudible._

 _The psychologist nodded before gesturing to the mirror behind Chuck and then the video cut off._

“Well,” Casey begun, “That was disturbing.”

“You don’t think he actually does blame us?” Sarah asked.

“No,” Casey said with absolute certainty, “If he did, we would both be dead by now.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked.

“You heard him,” Casey said as he pointed to the now blank screen, “He knew where we were.”

“Did you have any idea we were in the same place?” Sarah asked him, changing the subject.

“No,” Casey said with a frown, “I mean, I guessed I would be put in One, it is the government’s own personal Super Max, but usually partners are split up as much as is humanly possible. Makes for kinda weird logic to have us in the same place, considering how dangerous we are together.”

“Maybe they thought something like this might happen and that they’d need us both at short notice.”

“Maybe,” Casey said before playing the next video.

Sarah didn’t want to watch anymore, had seen enough of Chuck being… well, not Chuck. Every time she looked at the screen, her heart broke a little and she became more and more fearful of this stranger who called himself Chuck Bartowski.

~*~*~*~*~*~

They arrived in LA rather late in the evening, so after checking into their hotel, they both agreed to wait until morning, before setting out for the Woodcomb’s.

Casey headed straight for the power jet steam shower, standing under the spray and letting the hot water penetrate deep into his muscles. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a decent shower, and it felt beyond amazing.

After a half hour or so though, he decided to try something else and filled the tub with the most luxurious bubbles (he would kill before he ever admitted enjoying bubble baths) before grabbing a nice cold beer from the mini bar and climbing in.

As he lay there, enjoying every second of it, he couldn’t think of a reason as to why he would ever get out… until his stomach started to rumble. Sighing, he realised he hadn’t eaten anything since the plane that morning. He got out of the bath, wrapped a towel round his waist and headed out of the bathroom towards the room service menu.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, trying to pick what he wanted. He couldn’t quite decide between steak and lobster so in the end, decided to get both… after all, the government would be paying for it all, not him. He reached out, about to pick up the phone, when it rang. Frowning at it, he picked it up cautiously, “Yeah?” he asked.

“So, here’s the thing,” Sarah’s voice began, “I’m having my first night of freedom in four years and I’m spending it alone, watching CNN of all things.”

“You have a whole host of channels and you choose CNN?” Casey asked in mock horror.

“Shut up Casey,” Sarah told him, “What are you doing?”

“I was just about to order room service,” he said.

“Oh, right. Cool.”

There was a silence and Casey realised she was waiting for an invite, so rolling his eyes, he relented, “You want me to order you something to?” he finally asked.

“Sure, I’ll be right over,”

Casey hung up the phone and just as he stood up to grab his sleep pants, Sarah walking to his room, obviously having used some kind of master key to get in… where and when she had gotten it, he would never know.

“Where’s the menu?” she asked.

“There,” Casey said pointing to the bed, “Order me rare steak and the lobster,” he told her as he dropped the towel and began to pull on his sleep pants.

He wasn’t that bothered about Sarah seeing him naked as she had seen everything plenty of times before. By the time he had pulled on a t-shirt, Sarah had ordered for them both and was sitting cross legged on his bed, once more, watching CNN.

She was wearing a pair of gray sleep pants, a pink tank top and had her hair pushed back with one of those soft head bands with a pair of glasses sitting on the end of her nose as she frowned at what the news presenter was saying.

She was probably one of the Goddamn prettiest things he had ever seen.

“Guess what?” she said absently, breaking him out of his reverie.

“What” he asked as he picked up his damp towel to take into the bathroom.

“Republicans are back in the Oval Office,” she told him, “That should please you.”

Casey smiled, “Who said I was still a Republican?” he asked.

Sarah looked at him with a mixture of shock and horror, “You’re kidding right?” she asked him.

Casey shrugged before tossing the towel through the bathroom door, “Not sure I see the point in supporting either or these days,” he said, “It’s not like we’re allowed to vote.”

“Yeah, but what about your principals?” she asked him.

Casey opened up the mini-bar and pulled out a couple of beers, “You spend four years in solitary confinement for something you thought was the right thing to do but our so called government says otherwise… your principles change a little.”

Sarah nodded, “Tell me about it,” she said as she accepted the beer from him and he sat down next to her.

“So would you still do it?” she asked him, “Try and help him escape?”

Casey sighed, “I would probably have got him out of there as soon as he re-uploaded that damn computer, instead of waiting for orders… we knew they would come eventually, it was just our lax attitude that led to them succeeding.”

Sarah fell back against the headboard as she let his words sink in, they were very much akin to what she felt herself, “I can’t believe that’s him you know, that they managed to tear him apart and destroy him like that.”

“Yeah well, ain’t nothing we can do about it now but find him.”

“And then?” Sarah asked, almost scared to hear his answer.

Casey looked at her, knowing she was worried that he would resort back to his old self, “We do whatever we have to,” he said, “Now, enough of this depressing crap,” he added as he grabbed the remote off her, “There has to be something better on.”

After searching through the channels, they settled on re-runs of Cheers. It was completely cheesy and predicable, but contained no drama and didn’t exactly call for a lot of thinking to be done.

After the first episode, the knock on the door meant that room service was there. Casey grabbed his gun (out of habit) and opened the door, only to be surprised by the tow over flowing carts that were wheeled in. It seemed that Sarah was a little hungry. She had ordered a large platter of sushi, which was actually meant for two, as well as a huge serving of meatballs and spaghetti. Then there was the tray of deserts, which also included a very expensive bottle of champagne.

“You think we’ll get into trouble for perhaps taking liberties?” she asked him.

“Do we give a shit?” Casey asked with a grin.

Both of them stared at all the food for a second, before diving in, forgetting manners and shoving food into their mouths, moaning indecently as all the wonderful flavours hit their taste buds. And as much as they were both loving their own choices, they shared, wanting the other to experience the exquisite taste along with them.

When they were done, the only thing left being a couple of mouthfuls of cherry pie, some ice cream and half the champagne, they both collapsed onto the bed, full and completely satiated.

They lay there, in silence, for a few moments before Casey spoke, “I think I might barf,” he mumbled, only receiving a small ‘mmm’ in reply.

Casey turned to look at Sarah, unable to stop himself from smiling slightly as he saw that she had her eyes closed and for all intents and purposes, looked like she was sleeping.

“Maybe you should head back to your own room,” he suggested as he shook her shoulder slightly.

“I don’t wanna,” she told him.

“Well you can’t stay here.”

“Why not?” she asked as she finally opened her eyes to look up at him.

“Cause.”

Sarah made a face at him, before turning her body round to face him, “When was the last time you shared a bed with some one?” she asked.

Casey frowned, “Uh…”

“I can’t really remember either,” she told him.

“Are you hitting on me?” he asked, “Cause if you are, I gotta tell you with all the food in my stomach, vigorous exercise probably wouldn’t be advisable.”

Sarah smiled at him, “That’s good to know. But no. I wasn’t hitting on you. I just… I want to fall asleep with a pair of strong arms around me.”

Casey studied her for a moment and realised that actually, after four years plus of sleeping on his own, it would be nice to have a warm body to wrap himself around.

”Well, we need to be up early, so I guess we better get some shut eye.”

Together the two of them manoeuvred themselves underneath the covers. Casey reached over Sarah and turned out the light before lying down behind her, snaking his arm around her waist and puller her close. Sarah pushed back, fitting against his body perfectly while laying her hand on top of his and interlacing their fingers.

“Good night John.”

“Night Sarah.”

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

As Sarah woke up, it took her a moment or two to remember where she was. But then with the feel of Casey’s strong arm around her waist, his soft breath on the back of her neck, she soon remembered that she was no longer in prison, but was in fact in a hotel room, sharing the worlds most comfortable bed with the only person in the world that she trusted. John Casey.

He was only half asleep, fidgeting a little as he tried to remain in blissful subconsciousness. Gently stroking her fingers over the back of his hand, she turned towards the window and felt her heart quicken a bit as she spotted the sun rising over the horizon.

“Casey wake up,” she said, tapping him on the hand now.

“What?” Casey asked as he snapped his head up.

“The sun’s coming up,” Sarah told him, pointing to the window.

Casey looked at the window, a frown on his face before looking back down at her, “You woke me for that?” he asked.

Sarah rolled her eyes at his lack of enthusiasm, “Fine go back to sleep,” she said as she fully turned to face the window.

She felt Casey flop back down onto the pillow behind her, tightening his hold on her as he lined their bodies up together once more. She could feel that he was aroused, feel it pushing against her. But she knew that it was completely natural and that he wouldn’t make any kind of move on her without her express permission.

As she watched the sun begin to glow orange, she couldn’t help but contemplate what would happen if she did give her permission.

She wasn’t adverse to the idea, it had been over four years since she’d had sex after all, but it was Casey. He was her partner, her best friend and well… she wasn’t sure if she wanted to risk losing that. And she knew, that while he would never admit it, he would be just as worried about it.

While the sun rose high in the sky, she noticed that his hold had lessened somewhat as he fell back asleep. She relaxed back against him, watching as sun now shined through the window, feeling safer and freer than she had in as long as she could remember and was unable to prevent the few small tears that fell down her face onto the pillow.

If only all mornings were this peaceful.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Casey and Sarah frowned as they pulled up outside the Woodcomb household. They now lived in a ‘gated’ community and from what they had read in the file, had one child with another on the way.

“We should go in,” Sarah said after she realised they were both stalling.

Casey sighed, “Sure, lead the way.”

As one they walked up the garden path towards the front door, both of them dressed in black with matching shades and looking more like government agents that they ever had before.

Sarah stood just a little in front of Casey, him close to her back as she leaned forward and rang the door bell.

At first, there was nothing but silence, but then the sound of a giggling toddler, followed by a female voice telling the child that their Daddy was coming to get them if they didn’t behave.

Sarah and Casey both pulled their shades off just as the door began to open. Ellie smiled, her hand on the head of the little person who was holding onto her legs before she actually looked up and focussed on them. And then she froze.

“Hi Ellie,” Sarah said, giving her a soft smile of her own.

“Stephen, go get Daddy,” Ellie said.

Stephen shook his head in defiance, his curly brown hair so much like Chuck’s bouncing as he did so.

“Go,” Ellie said, her tone leaving no place for argument and the two year old trotted off to find Devon.

“What are you doing here?” she asked them, “I thought you were in prison?”

Casey and Sarah bristled a little, noting that she was being more than a little off with them.

“We were,” Sarah said, “But well, the thing is…”

“Chuck escaped,” Casey interrupted.

Ellie frowned, “What do you mean escaped?” she asked, “Chuck’s dead. He died four years ago. You shot him.”

“What?” Sarah asked in complete shock while Casey growled something about killing a certain General himself, “Ellie, we didn’t kill him.”

“Sure you did, you shot both him and my Dad. That’s why they arrested you.”

“Hey Babe,” Devon said as he opened up the door, Stephen in his arms, “What’s all the… ruckus?”

Devon froze as he took in the sight before him, a look of utter fear falling on his face before reaching out to grab Ellie, “Honey, why don’t you come inside.”

Ellie stepped back inside the house and Devon quickly handed Stephen to her before whispering, “Call the cops.”

But before she could, Casey had stepped forward and pushed his way inside.

“Walker and I didn’t kill Chuck and we didn’t kill your Dad either,” he snapped, “They are both alive and well and for the past four years had been being held in a government facility. But now Chuck’s decided to get some revenge, has so far killed at least eight people, maybe more. And we were brought out of prison to help find him.”

“You’re lying,” Ellie said as she stormed past him to head towards the living room.

“Look, I don’t have time for this,” Casey said, stopping her in her tracks, “You can believe us or not. Just tell us you still have his Tron poster.”

“What?”

“Chuck’s Tron poster. We need it,” Casey explained.

“Casey,” Sarah warned, telling him with a look that he was pushing them too quickly, “Look,” she then said to Ellie and Devon, “Your neighbours are starting to stare. Maybe it would be best if we all went and sat down.”

Ellie looked to Devon, who shrugged before she turned back to them, “Okay,” she said, before leading the way into the living room.

Sarah grabbed Casey and together they followed Ellie with Devon bringing up the rear. They were led into a very nicely decorated (if a little plain) living room, the walls covered in pictures of Devon, Ellie, little Stephen with some of Chuck and his Dad. As they sat down, Casey and Sarah looked about themselves, taking in every detail while Devon and Ellie sat opposite them and stared.

“Well?” Ellie eventually said.

“Ellie, how much do you know?” Sarah asked, “Or at least, what were you told?”

Ellie was silent for a moment, glancing at Devon for reassurance. When he reached out and took her hand, she took a deep breath then spoke, “I know everything,” she said, “I know all about Bryce, the email, the Intersect, you two being his handlers, the secret base underneath the Orange Orange… everything.”

Casey and Sarah sat in stunned silence for a moment before Casey spoke.

“How?”

Ellie sighed, “When Dad first left, Chuck ad I made a pact that we would both open a safe deposit box, put our most treasured possessions in there, kind of like a time capsule. We gave each other a key, so that if anything ever happened to either one of us, we could go there and open a box of memories,” she explained, “And well, when I went there, there was a letter inside it, dated the day before… before it all happened. And in it, he told me everything.”

“Maybe I will kill him,” Casey growled.

Sarah ignored him though, “Do you still have the letter?” she asked

”No,” Ellie said, “I burned it, just like Chuck told me to.”

Sarah sighed, “Of course he did.”

“You do know the kind of danger he put you both in?” Casey asked, “That he continues to put you in. The information you both now know could be invaluable to our country’s enemies.”

“Yes,” Ellie nodded, “We know that, but I’m glad he told us. Now we know the truth, what really happened…”

“Except you don’t,” Casey interrupted, “You were lied to, told he was dead, that your Dad was dead too.”

“Well do you want to clear that up for us then?” Devon asked.

Casey looked at Sarah, “You can tell them,” he said, since she was the one that insisted they sit and talk.

Sarah turned to Ellie and Devon, before taking a deep breath and began to tell them all about what had been happening to Chuck for the past four years, why they had really been sent to prison and why they had been released. When Ellie asked about their Dad, Sarah had to tell them that unfortunately, their intel on him was limited, but he was definitely alive. Then she explained about the code and the poster.

It had all been a bit much to take in, being warned that Chuck had changed, that he had been clinically diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with homicidal tendencies, that should they come across him to keep their distance as they had no idea what his reasoning for attacking people was at the moment.

As Ellie had been upset, she had excused herself into the kitchen while Devon led them both up to the attic.

“All of Chuck’s stuff is in those boxes over there,” he said, “Help yourself. I’m just gonna go check on Ellie.”

Casey and Sarah nodded to him as he left them to it.

There weren’t many boxes, five at the most and a hold all full of clothes, but that was it.

They took their time going through the contents, unable to stop themselves from becoming a little nostalgic at the sight of some of his things, like his Buy More pocket protector, his fully poseable figure of Chewbacca, but mostly at the photograph of the three of them that Chuck had insisted upon at his sister’s rehearsal dinner.

As Sarah put it down and moved on to the last box, Casey couldn’t help himself from pocketing it as it was the last time he could remember all three of them being happy.

“It’s not here,” Sarah said after she’s went through the last box.

“It has to be,” Casey said.

“Well I’m telling you, it’s not,” she said as she turned to look at him, one hand on her hip in defiance.

Casey smiled.

“What?” she asked in confusion.

“You’ve got some dust on your nose,” he said as he stepped forward and wiped it off for her, using the pad of his thumb.

“Oh,” she said, “Um thanks,”

“Don’t mention it,” he told her, a soft smile still playing his lips.

“How are you guys getting on?” Devon asked as he appeared making them both jump apart a little in surprise.

“It’s uh, it’s not here,” Sarah said as Casey busied himself with packing up the interesting and useful things they did find.

“Huh,” Devon said with a frown, “Well Ellie’s made some lunch if you want to join us, she’s got some more stuff she wants to ask and maybe she’ll be able to remember if we threw it out in the move or something.”

Although neither of them was too excited about the thought of spending more time under Ellie’s scrutinising gaze, the thought of her cooking was just too tempting to pass up and they soon found themselves sitting at the Woodcomb’s kitchen table, tucking in to the most luxurious mac & cheese they had ever tasted.

Ellie had been a bit perplexed when Devon had told her that they couldn’t find the poster, but when she and Devon had started to clear away the dishes, Casey had said something that had her remembering where it might be.

“You wouldn’t be able to put the leftovers in a doggy bag at all?” he asked, “Prison food has kind left both of us with anything that actually has taste to it.”

Ellie had smiled a little sadly at him, “Sure I can,” she said, “God, I haven’t made a doggy bag for anyone since the last time Morgan and Anna…” she had stopped, frozen, half way towards the door, “Morgan!” she shouted.

“Morgan?” Devon asked, “Honey are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” she said as she turned to Casey and Sarah, “Last time he was here, Morgan took a whole box full of Chuck’s stuff back home with him. He must’ve taken the poster.”

Sarah grinned while Casey raised an eyebrow at her, “And just where might Morgan’s new home be?” he asked.

“Well, Waipio,” she said, “In Hawaii.”

Casey turned to Sarah and let out a theatrical sigh, “It’s a hard job, but somebody’s got to do it.”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him before pulling out her phone, “I’ll make the arrangements,” she said as she headed out into the hallway.

Casey watched her go for a second, before turning back to Ellie and Devon (who was cleaning Stephen’s mac & cheese out of his hair), “This’ll probably sound not only unprofessional by rather well, not like me,” he began, “But it was really nice seeing you guys again. I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

Ellie nodded, giving him a soft smile before continuing to make up his doggy bag.

“You too bro,” Devon said before turning back to his son.

Sarah came back in then, giving them all a smile, “We should go,” she said to Casey who nodded and got up.

As they made their way back to the front door, Sarah pulled out a card with both hers and Casey’s numbers on it.

“If you see anything suspicious or he tried to contact you in any way, call us,” she said.

“Okay,” Ellie nodded, although Sarah wasn’t entirely convinced she would.

Casey couldn’t help but notice how both women appeared like they wanted to hug each, but couldn’t quite bring themselves to do it, and so just said goodbye instead.

When they were half way down the garden path, shades back on their faces, Ellie’s voice stopped them.

“What will you do?” she asked, “If you find him, what will you do?”

Both of them turned to look at her, but it was Casey who answered.

“Orders are to bring him in dead or alive,” he said, “But what really happens is up to Chuck.”

The drove straight to the airport, flashing their (temporary) badges and getting through security without any issues. They only had to wait an hour before their flight was boarding and they were soon on their way across the pacific to visit one Mr. and Mrs. Morgan Grimes.

Casey had been rather surprised that after being under the impression that Chuck was dead, that Morgan had still left. But then, Sarah had reminded him that Chuck wouldn’t have wanted Morgan or Anna to put their lives on hold for him and that Morgan of all people had to know that.

And so as they sat on the plane, Casey absently eating his leftovers from lunch, they familiarised themselves with Morgan’s file. He had fulfilled his dream it seemed and had become a rather successful Hibachi chef. He and Anna had opened up their own restaurant, called Chuck’s of all things, had gotten married a couple of years ago and had a baby girl who was only nine months old.

“They names it Chuck’s?” Casey asked with a snort of amusement, “Not very Japanese like.”

“Yeah well, from their annual profit margins, I guess it doesn’t have to be,” Sarah said, pointing to the sum in front of her.

“Yeah, guess not,” Casey agreed, “Still, would you eat anything Grimes made for you?”

“You never had one of his sandwiches?” she asked in surprise.

“You did?” Casey retorted, a look of utter horror on his face.

Sarah smiled a little, “Trust me,” she said, “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

After checking into their hotel (they had only booked one room, deciding to pose as couple on vacation), they had decided that it would be best not to wait until the morning to go see Morgan, as the quicker they got that poster the better.

Dressed casually, Casey actually wearing shorts and a hawaiin shirt, while Sarah dawned a short skirt and tank top with a palm tree on the front, they walked hand in hand down the street towards Chuck’s.

It wasn’t tourist season - or at least, it wasn’t peak tourist season as every season here was more or less tourist season – so the streets weren’t too busy, but busy enough that they managed to blend in easily.

Casey smiled to himself, realising just how easy it would be for them to slip into the crowd and just disappear. With their experience, no one would ever find them. But they couldn’t do that. They owed it to Chuck to find him and at least, find out why he was doing what he was doing as he surely had a reason.

“There it is,” Sarah said, nodding towards a building across the road.

The sign above the door was huge and garish, with neon palm trees, the word ‘Chuck’s’ in a Japanese style and flashing brightly. It was very Morgan like.

Continuing to hold hands, they made their way across the street and headed straight for the restaurant. However, when they got there, they both frowned in confusion as the shutters were pulled down over the windows and the door was shut tight. Casey reached out and grabbed the sign that was sticking to it off and frowned at it.

‘Closed due to family emergency. Sorry for any inconvenience.’

“What the hell?” Casey asked

“You think Ellie called him?”

Casey sighed, “Probably,” he said as he scrunched it up in anger, earning a few curious glances from those walking past, “You got their home address?”

“Uh yeah,” Sarah said as she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, “We’ll need to get a cab though.”

“Knew we should’ve rented a car,” Casey grumbled, “Gonna cost a fortune to get to Waipio.”

“Yeah well, not like it’s our money,” Sarah said as she took hold of his hand again and pulled him down the street towards the taxi stand.

While Morgan and Anna lived in Waipio, up in the hills, their restaurant was down in Pearl City, which had a much larger tourist trade and so would earn more money. Although they surely lost a lot of money in fuel as they commuted, even though the journey was likely to take less than thirty minutes. But then, from where Grimes lived in LA to the Buy More was at least forty five minutes, so he guessed they must not notice much of a difference.

They had to wait about ten minutes for a cab, all the while, Casey becoming more and more agitated. Sarah too was beginning to get a little worried, but she did her best to remain calm because if she lost it, then there would be no controlling Casey.

When they climbed into the back of the cab, Casey groaned inwardly as the driver started to talk away to them in an overly cheery manner. It was annoying as hell. It wasn’t any of the driver’s business what they were doing in Hawaii or why they were going out of the city into the ‘suburbs’.

Sarah spun him some story though, all the while keeping a calming hand on his arm. She told them they were thinking of relocating there as they’d come into some money recently and that they had some friends who lived in Waipio, who had invited them over for dinner.

The driver seemed to realise that Casey wasn’t in the mood for talking and so concentrated on Sarah instead, asking them how long they’d been together.

“Just over six years,” she said, “But we’ve known each other for longer.”

“Really? So what happened six years ago to change everything?”

“We both got moved into the same office and ended up working closely together.”

“Oh, I get it, office romance huh?”

Sarah smiled, “Yeah something like that,” she said as she sat back, squeezing Casey’s arm a little as she did so.

Casey wasn’t sure why he did it, but as a silence fell throughout the cab, he lifted Sarah’s hand off his arm and placed it in his hand instead, threading their fingers together and holding on tight.

Perhaps it was the fact that they had been through so much together, that it had been over six years since this all started, that she was the only person in the world that he felt remotely close to, that he could trust and be himself around, but he just felt the need to hold her hand and so he did.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, spent with Sarah talking a little to the driver while Casey stared out the window, taking in the way the lights from the towns lit up the mountains but hid the stars from view. It made him a little sad as the last time he’d been here, which was a lot longer than he would like to admit, the starlit sky had been one of the best things about the island.

“We’re here,” the driver said as he pulled up outside a nondescript house.

Sarah climbed out while Casey paid him, quickly following her. As they stood on the kerb, they looked up to the house.

“Does that look like smoke to you?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, it does,” Casey nodded, worry beginning to come over him.

Together they hurried up the drive, not even bothering to knock on the front door, instead making their way round the back and pulling out their guns once they knew they were out of view of the cab driver who had been sitting watching them.

However, when they rounded the corner, what they saw made them freeze in surprise.

Morgan was standing at a barbeque (the cause of the smoke) while Anna sat to the side with their baby in her arms, both of them laughing about something.

“Some family emergency,” Casey growled, making Anna and Morgan turn to look over at him.

Morgan grinned, “You got my note then,” he said, “Burger?”

“What the hell is going on?” he asked instead as he and Sarah put their guns away.

“Ellie called,” Morgan said, “Told us what was going on.”

“She told you… over the phone?” Sarah asked, unable to believe that after everything they’d talked about that morning that Ellie would be so stupid.

“Of course not, she just said that Chuck and their Dad weren’t dead and that the people we thought killed them, didn’t and were actually the good guys and were on their way. So I figured, you know, it would be best for us to talk about whatever you want to talk about here, in private.”

“And the barbeque?” Casey asked.

“It’s a long flight from LA,” Anna said as she shrugged, “Figured you’d be hungry.”

Casey sighed, running a hand over his too short hair as he turned to Sarah, who looked just as uncertain about what to do about their current situation as he felt.

“Okay, so you know we’re the good guys,” she said as she turned to Morgan and Anna, “And thank you for the food, but we really can’t stay long. We just need Chuck’s Tron poster.”

“Chuck’s Tron poster?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah, we think it has some vital information on it that will help us find Chuck,” Casey said, “Where is it?”

Morgan frowned at them in confusion, “Well I… I don’t have it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

  
They stayed there for a couple of hours, listening to Morgan telling them about the Tron poster and how yeah, he had taken it from Ellie, but that it had got so damaged on the flight back, that he had threw it in the garbage.

Needless to say, they were thoroughly disappointed. However, Morgan cheered them up by filling their bellies with delicious food.

Conversation then spread to what Morgan and Anna had been up to in the past four years, how they were enjoying life in Hawaii and how little Charlie (their baby girl) was doing. It was rather strange for both Sarah and Casey, as they actually felt like they were just hanging out with old friends, people who neither of them had realised that they actually missed.

They were happy for them both, happy that they had managed to carve out a place for themselves in such a depressing world, that life was good and that they had a beautiful daughter.

Casey even took a turn holding little Charlie, cradling her gently in his arms as the other three tried to tease him. He just ignored them though, sure he put on an act of being a heartless killer, but he liked kids, had a few nieces and nephews, that he unfortunately, never had the chance to see enough of, so he wasn’t about to let them make him feel uncomfortable.

“Can I use your bathroom?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, it’s up the stairs, second on the left,” Anna told her as she pointed into the house.

“Thanks,” Sarah said with a smile, squeezing Casey’s shoulder as she walked past him.

Walking through the house, she couldn’t help but smile a little as it was very Anna and Morgan like. It was full of nerdy type things, sci fi references, gadgets, as well as somehow being tastefully decorated with a hint of Asian culture mashed with Spanish. It was oddly, very homey.

However, as she walked up the stairs, she froze at the painting situated on the wall at the very top of them. It was a Picasso print, completely out of place with the rest of the house, putting her on high alert, but more importantly, it was slightly squint.

Stepping forward she gently lifted it off the wall, shock and anger setting in as she her eyes took in the sight before her. On the wall, was a clear outline of a rectangle, of whatever painting or print had been there before, one that had been there for a few years at least. And, it was exactly the same shape as the Tron poster.

Placing the Picasso back on the wall, she about turned and made her way back down the stairs.

“That was quick,” Morgan said when he saw her coming.

She just gave him a small smile though before leaning down to whisper into Casey’s ear. Casey turned his head sharply, looking up at her in disbelief, but when he saw that she was being deadly serious, he turned back to the small bundle in his arms.

Standing up, he handed her to Anna before turning to Morgan.

“Something up big guy?” Morgan asked, and Casey couldn’t help but notice how nervous he had become.

Casey reached forward and grabbed him, throwing him over the garden table, “What did you do with the poster?” he asked.

“I told you, it got damaged on the plane…”

“Grimes, do not push your luck,” Casey growled, “Chuck is a murderer. If you’re protecting him, you’ll go to prison for conspiracy after the fact… both of you will. Then what will happen to little Charlie?”

With the mention of Charlie, Morgan flinched, however he was still debating on what to do. Anna however, wasn’t.

“We burned it,” she said.

Casey turned to her, not letting go of Morgan as Sarah questioned her, “Why?” she asked.

“When Ellie called…” she started before taking a deep breath.

“Chuck asked us to,” Morgan explained.

“What?” Casey asked, thumping him back onto the table again, “When? Was he here? Where did he go?”

“He wasn’t here,” Morgan said, “He… he left me a letter in his security box. Ellie gave it to me and in it he asked that I take care of his poster for him and that if… if I ever heard from you two again, I was to burn it,” he explained.

Casey stared at him, studying him closely to look for any signs that he was lying. But there was none and so he relented his grip, letting Morgan push himself up off the table.

“Do you still have the letter?” Sarah asked.

Morgan shook his head, “No. I burned that too. But uh… I got something in the mail the other day.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just hold on, I’ll go get it,” he said as he ran into the house.

Not wanting to let him out of his sight, Casey followed him into the kitchen where he pulled an old cake tin down off the top of the fridge. Lifting the lid, he pulled out a letter and handed it over.

Casey read the address on it:

 _J. Casey & S. Walker  
c/o Morgan Grimes…_

“He knew we would come here,” Casey said more to himself than anyone else, but Morgan still replied.

“He always was the smart one.”

Casey looked at the postal date, “This was posted two days ago.”

“Yeah? So? I thought you said he’d been missing for weeks.”

“We were in prison two days ago. Had no idea what was going on until yesterday,” Casey explained as he examined the envelope again, noting that the postal address was Virginia, “Shit, he must have posted this when he…” he trailed off, realising it would be best not to discuss the details in front of Morgan.

“When he what?” Morgan asked as Casey headed back outside to find Sarah trying to calm down a sobbing Anna.

“Here,” he said as he handed it over to her, “It was posted from Virginia two days ago.”

“What?” Sarah asked as she stood up, clutching the letter in her hand and examining it, “Two days ago, but we…”

“I know. He must have sent it while he was going for Beckman.”

Sarah sighed heavily as she looked at the letter once more, “Should we open it?” she asked him.

Casey shrugged, “Seems like the appropriate thing to do.”

Sarah gently tore the letter open, knowing that they would probably have to preserve the envelope for evidence. Inside was a small slip of paper, with Chuck’s untidy scrawl on it.

Taking a deep breath, she began to read what it said:

 _Sarah. Casey,_

 _I know why you’re doing this, but please stop. One or all of us will only get hurt if you carry on with this mission, and I’m not talking about my hands. There are others. This is more dangerous than any situation either of you have ever been involved with before. I don’t want you to risk your lives unnecessarily._

 _Please, let me finish what I’ve started. Then I swear, I will turn myself in. But until then, just stay away._

 _CB_

 _PS  
Sarah, I was sorry to hear about your Dad. He was a good man. And Casey, your mother misses you. She deserves to know you’re alive.”_

Sarah lowered the letter and looked up to Casey, noting that he looked just as confused and worried as she felt.

“We need to talk to Clark,” he said as he pulled out his phone and moved to step off to the side.

“Casey wait,” she said as she followed him, “How well do you know Clark?” she asked.

“Not that well,” he said, “Why?”

“Can we trust him?” she asked, making Casey frown at her in confusion, “Look, he’s just going to tell us to keep looking anyway right?”

“Well, yeah,” Casey nodded.

“So, why do we need to tell him about this?”

“Sarah? If you’re trying to say what I think you’re saying, then you clearly are as unhinged as I thought,” he told her.

Sarah stared up at him, a small smile playing on her lips, “Yeah, but you’re right there with me right?”

Casey shook his head in bemusement, “You’re gonna get us both killed,” he told her as he put the phone away.

Sarah smiled before hooking her arm around his and dragging him back to Morgan and Anna. They had to say goodbye now as they had a lot of work to be getting on with.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Affirmative,” Casey said as he spoke into his phone, “I have no reason to believe that Grimes is lying about the poster.”

Sarah sat on the bed, cleaning her gun as she watched him. He was pacing back and forward as he spoke, uncomfortable with the fact that he was lying. He may not be directly going against orders, but he was withholding information and that was a big no, no.

“We would like to talk to Orion,” he said, “We think he would be more susceptible to our questions than he has been with others. He may be keeping something from us,” he added.

Pausing in his attempt to walk a hole into the floor, he turned and looked right at Sarah, listening to whatever it was that Clark was saying to him. Then, a small smile creeping onto his lips, he gave her a wink and a thumbs up, Clark obviously having given them the go ahead.

“Two days?” Casey asked, “But our lead will go cold… yes. I understand. Thank you, sir.”

When he hung up, he sighed and sat down on the bed next to her, lifting up her tin of gun oil and playing with it idly.

“So?” Sarah asked.

“Apparently, it’s gonna take a while to get us clearance,” he told her, “So we’ve to sit tight until then.”

“Here? In Hawaii?” she asked.

Casey shrugged, “Could be worse,” he said, “They could’ve locked us back up in prison while we waited.”

Sarah sighed, “I know but… I feel like we should at least be doing something with our free time.”

“Sunbathing don’t count?” he asked.

Sarah smacked him on the arm playfully, “You know what I mean,” she said, “Why don’t we go to Illinois?”

Casey bristled slightly at that, “And just what is in Illinois?” he asked.

“My sister,” she said, “Your mother.”

“Sarah, no,” he said, “Sure we can go see your sister, but I’m not… I can’t do that to her.”

“Why not?” Sarah asked as he stood up and started pacing again, once more feeling uncomfortable with the situation.

“In case you didn’t notice,” he began, “We’re on a pretty dangerous mission here.”

“Of course I…”

“We’re chasing after someone, who is more or less, a trained assassin who has gone bad,” he continued, cutting her off completely, “And he just so happens to know our next moves before we even do. Doesn’t that terrify you a little?” he asked, before carrying on, not giving her a chance to answer,” If I die, she’ll have to go through all that again. And I can’t, I won’t do that to her.”

Sarah was quiet for a moment, letting him calm down slightly before she spoke, “You honestly think that Chuck will hurt you?” she asked, “After that letter.”

“He’s insane Sarah,” he snapped, “He’s not Chuck anymore. Who knows what he’d do if he felt his life was in danger, or if we were getting in the way of whatever it is he’s trying to achieve here.”

Sarah shook her head as she stood up, “You’re wrong you know,” she told him, heading towards the bathroom, “He’s already trying to protect us.”

“Where the hell are you going?” Casey asked, ignoring her last comment.

“To shower,” she said before slamming the bathroom door shut.

Casey growled to himself, loudly, feeling pissed at the fact that she had just walked away before they had finished they’re fight. But at the same time, he was pissed that they had fought at all.

He hated pointless arguments, especially with Sarah, because most of the time, she was always right. Still, didn’t mean he’d go see his mother. That was a no that he just wasn’t for budging on.

As the sound of running water his ears, he collapsed back down onto the bed and picked up the gun part that Sarah had been cleaning before she stormed off, deciding to finish cleaning it himself.

He took his time, making sure to reach every crevice on each of the parts before meticulously putting it back together again. When he was finished, he leaned over and placed it on the nightstand at her side of the bed.

Her side.

It should feel weird, it should. But it just didn’t. He’d never had a ‘side of the bed’ before. Not even with Ilsa, they had just fell asleep wherever they landed. But with Sarah… she had slept on his right hand side last night, and had situated her things on that side once more. Sure they were only two days in, but he knew that things would remain this way… if she was still talking to him after her shower that is.

And then of course, there was the fact that he was comparing her to Ilsa, his one and only love. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was comparing them, but it seemed like the natural thing to do.

As he put away the cleaning things, the door to the bathroom opened, steam billowing out before Sarah appeared, wearing pyjamas that consisted of a tiny tank top and even tinier shorts.

Casey tried not to let his eyes linger, instead focussing on the bright blue turban on top of her head.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said as he stood up, “Gonna have a shower myself.”

“Fine,” she told him as she sat down (on her side) and grabbed a large tub, scooped some cream out of it and started to spread it all over those long legs of hers.

Needing to get away from her as quick as possible, he grabbed his sleep pants and all but ran to the bathroom. Perhaps sharing a room with her wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lying in the dark, Sarah had curled up into a ball, hovering on the edge of the bed while Casey lay flat on his back, arms at his side, staring at the ceiling. Neither of them could sleep, both far too troubled by their earlier argument to allow their minds to settle.

However, after two hours of just lying there, listening to Casey’s heavy and steady breathing, Sarah had had enough.

“This is stupid,” she said as she violently turned onto her side to face him.

Casey looked over at her from the corner of his eye, but still didn’t move.

“I know,” he said quietly.

Sarah watched him for a moment before sliding over the bed so that she was right at his side and place a hand on his chest.

“John,” she said softly, finally managing to get him to turn to look at her, “I’m sorry I pushed you about your Mom. I understand why you don’t want to go see her and I’m not going to push you anymore.”

Casey nodded, “Thank you,” he said, “I appreciate it.”

Sarah gave him a soft smile and was just about to lie back down when he spoke again, “If you still want to, maybe we could go see your sister. Or you could go at least. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got anything better to do.”

Smile getting wider, Sarah nodded, “Thank you,” she said before leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his lips.

Although slightly stunned at the kiss, Casey didn’t make any signs of protest or that he had been made uncomfortable, instead lifting up his arm and allowing Sarah to spoon up against his side.

Resting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm round his body, Sarah let the scent that was pure, unadulterated masculinity flood her nostrils. It was something that she hadn’t smelled for a long time, a very long time, not since before Bryce, and she couldn’t help but wonder how she had never noticed it before. But then, Casey had never let her get this close to him before, doubted that he let many people get this close to him and something about that excited her a little, made her spine tingle. Of course, the tingling could be down to the gentle finger he was lazily stroking up and down the bottom of her back, her tank top having rode up slightly. But she wasn’t complaining, it was nice and she could feel it slowly beginning to lull her to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Casey woke first this time, the noise from the chirping birds outside their window pulling him back into consciousness. Yawning, he rubbed a tired hand over his face before opening his eyes. His sight was immediately assaulted by deep blonde hair and that’s when he realised that his face had moments ago, been buried into the back of Sarah’s neck.

It wasn’t a bad place to have one’s face buried, he could think of a few better places (which really didn’t help his morning wood) but yeah, it was nice and well, she smelled pretty amazing. But then, she had always smelled amazing, even when she was all sweaty and covered in dirt.

He supposed that was one of the reasons why all the guys loved her, why they chased after her like she was the Pied Piper or something. But then, she was also smoking hot, which helped a lot.

Normally, blondes weren’t really his type, he liked his women dark and mysterious. But there was just something about her that had always attracted him to her, and he’d be damned if he could put his finger on it, which made him smile a little as his hand was currently splayed flat against her stomach, that tank top of hers having worked it’s way up even more in their sleep.

Unable to stop himself, he began to gently trace small circles on her skin. At first, there was no reaction, but after a few moments she began to moan softly and push back against him, her butt rubbing against him and making him bite his lips to stifle his own moans.

Realising that he was perhaps acting a little inappropriately and just making things worse for himself, he slowly withdrew his hand and turned to lay on his back.

He took a few moment to calm himself, breathing deep and listening to the sound of the birds mixed with Sarah’s breathing, willing his arousal to dissipate before slowly and silently slipping out of the bed to go relieve himself in the bathroom.

However, as he closed the door over, he completely missed Sarah turning to watch him, a look of utter disappointment on her face.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Casey slowed down the car before coming to a stop, he and Sarah both staring out the left hand side at the large, oppressive building that was the centre of the complex. It was raining hard, and the sound of it hitting off the roof of the car and the wipers squeaking on the windshield were the only sounds to hit their ears.

“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” he asked Sarah as he turned to look at her.

Sarah sighed, “No. It’s fine, she doesn’t really like strangers,” she said, “But thanks. I appreciate it.”

Casey nodded, “Well, at least let me drive you to the door, don’t need you to come all this way just to drown,” he said as he put the car into drive and slowly made his way up the long drive way.

He stopped just outside the main entrance and Sarah took a couple of deep breaths before turning to him, “Give me an hour,” she said, “Don’t think she’ll be up to more than that.”

Casey nodded, “Give me a call if you want me to come back sooner,” he said, “I’ll just be up the street getting a coffee or something.”

“Will do,” she said as she turned and climbed out of the car, running up the stairs and into the building.

Casey sat and waited until she was inside, before driving back out to the main road and heading back up the street towards a small café he had noticed as they had approached the ‘manor’.

It didn’t take him long to find a parking space, and while it was further away than he would’ve liked from the café, he couldn’t bring himself to get too annoyed by it. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been out in this kind of rain before, or felt the way it splashed onto his skin, soaking through his suit almost instantly and it was strangely nice to feel that again.

The café itself wasn’t anything special, but the strong smell of freshly brewed coffee and the assortment of cakes and pastries they had on offer definitely piqued his interests.

After ordering a coffee, he found a seat at a small table near the window, he pulled out his notebook that he had been keeping all the important things written down on so that he could have a good look and figure out where Chuck might be headed next or just what ‘Ragnarok’ was.

While Sarah had become convinced that it was the name of some terrorist cell (she couldn’t believe Chuck would kill for any other reason), he believed that it was the codename for a top secret government operation. They could both be wrong, or they could both be right. It was sort of the reason they really needed to talk to Orion… Stephen. He should probably start calling him that instead, as he was sure he wouldn’t take kindly to being called that to his face.

As the waitress brought his coffee over for him, he closed the notebook a little, shielding it from her eyes before turning to look out of the window.

The rain was really coming down hard now, such a contrast from the weather in Hawaii and Los Angeles, but still, this weather reminded him more of home than any other.

His family lived up state, for which he was kind of glad about as it meant he wouldn’t run into any of them by accident. But it would’ve been nice to see them. He thought about them all every single day. He yearned for some of his mother’s home made apple pie, to meet the niece or nephew that his sister had been expecting when he’d been arrested, to find out if his eldest nephew had got into Brown or not… but he couldn’t. They were better off without him in their life. It would be selfish of him to just barge in on them now and endanger them all once more. Sarah though, her situation was different. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to check up on Hannah, he would too if it were him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Sarah approached the front desk, she was a little surprised to see the same nurse there that had been there on her last visit, and it seemed, the nurse was just as surprised to see her.

“Miss Morrison?” she asked, “It’s been a long time.”

Sarah nodded, “Yes it has,” she said, unwilling to give any further explanation.

“We thought that after everything that happened with your father that we would see you sooner,” the nurse said as she handed over the sign in sheet for her.

“If I could’ve been here,” Sarah said as she signed her name, “I would’ve been.”

The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile before buzzing her through. As they walked down the corridor together, the spoke quietly about her sister.

“How has she been?” Sarah asked, “After Dad…”

“Well at first, she didn’t take it too well. But that’s to be expected,” the nurse explained, “Recently though she’s been doing better.”

Sarah nodded, thankful of that knowledge.

Hannah lived here in this facility and had done so since she was eleven. It was a home for those with extreme learning difficulties. When Sarah was eight, there had been an accident (she didn’t remember much about it) where a truck had hit the passenger side of their car head on. Hannah and their Mom had been on that side. Their Mom died instantly while Hannah had suffered from severe brain damage, preventing her brain from maturing past the age of eleven.

And that’s when their Dad started to con. He hadn’t had enough money to pay for Hannah’s care, but had wanted the best for her. It did mean though that they didn’t get to visit her as often as they would have liked, but it was the best place for her.

However, with their Dad dying, Sarah had feared the worst, that Hannah would be thrown out of her home. But she hadn’t been. She was still here. Someone else, some mysterious benefactor had stepped in and started paying the monthly fees instead, and try as she might, Sarah just couldn’t find out who that person was.

“Hannah,” the nurse said as she opened up the door to her room, “Look who’s here to see you.”

Hannah looked up from the video game she had been playing and all out grinned when she saw Sarah. She threw the controller down and ran over to her, pulling her into a tight hug.

Sarah gripped on tight, pulling her close and burying her face in her hair. Not long ago she had thought that she would never get the chance to see her sister again let alone hug her.

“I’ve missed you,” Hannah said.

“I know,” Sarah nodded as she pulled back, “I missed you too.”

“I’ll leave you two to it,” the nurse said with a grin as she stepped out of the room.

Sarah nodded, before turning back to Hannah and directing her over to her beanbag chairs where they sat down and Hannah began to tell Sarah about all the stuff she had been doing recently, most of it involving a new game that she’d been given.

“Who gave it to you?” Sarah asked.

“Charles,” Hannah said matter of factly, “He’s new. You don’t know him.”

“Oh okay,” Sarah nodded, not thinking much of it as there were probably a lot of new staff here that she didn’t know.

They sat and talked about some of the new residents that Hannah liked and didn’t like (there was a girl called Tara who smelled apparently), before Hannah went to grab her art folder to show Sarah that.

Hannah was actually a rather talented artist, while she probably didn’t understand the importance of art therapy, she was able to produce some amazing things. Sarah used to have some of her paintings up on her wall, but she had no idea what happened to them after she’d been arrested. They were probably in storage or something.

As they looked through the folder, Hannah asked if she wanted any and at first, Sarah was going to say no, to tell her to keep them here safe for her, but then something caught her eye.

“Who’s that?” she asked as she pointed to a familiar looking face in a rough charcoal sketch.

“That’s Charles,” Hannah explained.

“That’s Charles?” Sarah asked, a deep sense of fear setting in, “And he was here?”

Hannah nodded, “He’s nice. And very funny. He likes computer games.”

Closing her eyes, Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself, “When did you last see him?”

Hannah screwed up her face as she thought about it, “Uh… last night I think. Yeah, he was here just after dinner, said he wouldn’t be back for a while… ooh. He asked me to give you this the next time I saw you,” she said as she jumped up and went over to her ‘keepsake drawer’.

As she dug around in it, Sarah lifted up the sketch of what she now realised was Chuck. It terrified her to think that he had been here, that he had interacted with her sister, who he had previously knew nothing about, not even her real name. It made her wonder just what was in the Intersect.

Hannah jumped up in triumph and came over with an envelope, addressed to both her and Casey.

“Who’s Casey?” Hannah asked.

“My friend,” Sarah told her as she pocketed the letter.

“You’re friend? Is she here?”

“No, he’s waiting in the car,” Sarah explained, “Can I have this picture?”

“She’s a he?” Hannah asked with glee, “Is he your boyfriend?”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “No, he’s just a friend.”

Hannah gave her a look as if she clearly didn’t believe her, but didn’t push it, “You can have the picture if I get to meet your new friend.”

Sarah looked at her for a moment before nodding, “Deal,” she said as she shook her hand, “But it’ll need to wait till next time okay?”

Hannah huffed, “Fine,” she said, “When will you come back?”

“Soon,” Sarah told her, hoping that it would be soon indeed.

Hannah nodded, slumping down onto her bed as if realising that the visit was coming to an end.

Sarah walked over to her and pulled her into another hug, “You be good and I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can okay.”

“Okay,” she replied with a small pout.

Sarah kissed her on the top of the head, squeezed her tight once more and stood up, “Bye,” she said quietly.

“Bye,” Hannah said with a small wave, sadness seeping out of her every pore.

It broke Sarah’s heart to see her like that. If she could, she would spend all her time there with her, but she couldn’t. And every time she left her, it crushed a part of her to do so.

Walking swiftly towards the front desk, she approached the nurse there.

“You know who I work for?” she asked as she signed out.

“Sure,” the nurse nodded, “Why?”

“Because it seems my sister has been receiving visits from a known terrorist,” she explained as she held up the picture, “If this man appears here again, I want you to call me first, then call 911,” she added as she handed over her new number.

The nurse nodded, “Of course,” she said, unable to say anything else as Sarah turned and stormed out of there to see Casey sitting in the car waiting for her. She ran down the stairs, trying to shield the drawing from the rain as much as possible.

“Everything alright?” he asked when she slammed the door shut.

“Not really,” she said, “Hannah had a visitor,” she explained as she held out the picture.

Casey studied it, squinting a little at it, “So?” he asked, not recognising the man.

“That’s Chuck.”

“What?” Casey asked as he looked at it again, “Bull. This guy’s bald… you do remember Chuck’s crazy hair right?”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him, “And it didn’t occur to you that he could’ve shaved it off?” she asked.

Casey shrugged, “No.”

“Well, he gave Hannah this to give to me,” she said as she held out the letter to him also.

Casey stared at it, recognised Chuck’s hand writing and swallowed hard, “You read it yet?” he asked.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head, “Thought I’d wait for you first.”

Casey nodded, “Not here though, someone might see,” he said, “We’ll open it at the hotel,” he added, before handing back the picture and putting the car into drive.

Casey sped back to the hotel, almost getting them killed in the process as the roads were wet and he jumped more than a couple of red lights. Sarah was surprised that they didn’t get pulled over.

When they were back inside the hotel room, Casey pulled the curtains closed, made sure the ‘do not disturb’ sign was up on the door while Sarah kicked off her shoes and sat herself down on the bed. When he was ready, Casey joined her.

Together they opened the letter, their eyebrows shooting up slightly when a small data stick fell out, accompanied by a small letter.

 _Since you guys seem determined to carry on, I thought I’d offer a partial explanation. I know that you haven’t told Clark about my last letter, so I know you won’t tell him about this one or its contents._

 _CB_

Casey and Sarah stared at the letter for a moment, before Casey picked up the data stick, “So what are we supposed to do with this?”

Sarah shrugged, “Plug it into the lap top?” she asked.

“Are you nuts? It could contain a deadly virus for all we know, we can’t plug it into any computer.”

Sarah grabbed it off him, “Then how are we supposed to know what’s on it?”

“Who said there’s anything on it?” Casey asked, “He could just be testing us or something, wanting to know if we trust him.”

“Do we?” Sarah asked.

Casey sighed and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes, “I don’t know,” he said, “I don’t trust anyone these days.”

“No one?”

Looking up, Casey was surprised to see the hurt in Sarah’s eyes, “I don’t trust anyone but you,” he corrected, happy to see her relax a little at that.

She reached out and took hold of his hand before staring him right in the eyes, “We have to check this out,” she told him, “It could give us another lead. We can’t chance not looking into it.”

Casey sighed, “Okay,” he nodded, “But not on our laptop and not here at the hotel. We’ll need to find an internet café or something.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dressing down, wearing nice and casual clothes, they headed out into town, looking for somewhere where they could sit in semi-privacy to look at whatever Chuck had given them.

It took them longer than they had thought it would, not being used to such a low tech town. If they weren’t doing this under the radar, then they would have no issues, as it was, it was the exact type of thing that could get them thrown back into prison and have the key thrown away.

Eventually though, they found a nice little internet café on the other side of town from their hotel, small but busy enough for them to find a quiet corner to themselves. With it being a café however, they did need to buy something. Sarah was a tad annoyed with that, but Casey was rather pleased about it, the more chances he got to have quality coffee the better… even if it did make his stomach feel weird after four years of no coffee at all.

As he logged onto the computer, Sarah bought them some coffee and some pastry for Casey cause he said he was hungry. He was always hungry. Personally, she could wait for food until she’d looked at whatever was that stick.

Walking over with their order, Casey waved his hand, getting her to hurry up as the computer was starting up.

“Alright,” she hissed, setting it down and grabbing a chair. She pulled it close to him so that she was almost sitting on his lap while he draped his arm over the back of her chair.

They hadn’t actually agreed to play the couple again, they just slipped into it and neither of them noticed that they were acting that particular way either.

As Casey picked up his coffee with his free arm, Sarah leaned forward and connected the stick to the hard drive. While it loaded, Casey found himself tapping his fingers on the back of her chair nervously. If there was some kind of virus on it, and they released it onto the world wide web, then to put it mildly, they’d be fucked.

But there wasn’t a virus. Instead there was just a video. Grabbing a set of ear phones, Casey took one ear, while Sarah took the other and they pressed play.

At first, both of them were beyond confused. On the screen was a slideshow of photographs of Chuck’s family. There was Ellie and he as kids, his parents, Ellie and Devon getting married, a young Chuck and Morgan, Morgan and Anna getting married (which Chuck had missed of course), pictures of little Stephen, the Buy More gang, even Casey and Sarah. It was a little strange. But then, Chuck’s voice started speaking into their ears.

 _’Hi guys. I figured this would be safer than me giving you a video of my face, and I guess you’ve probably seen these all before so… yeah. How are you? Glad to be out of prison I bet. Yeah, me too. Sucks to be us, right?’_

Casey and Sarah turned to look at each other. This sounded like the old Chuck, if a little depressed, but he didn’t sound like the crazy guy they’d seen in the videos.

 _’Look, I know you guys have to find me, that your freedom depends on it. And you will find me. That I’m sure of. But you just got to let me take care of a few things first. I know that it looks bad, the whole thing with Beckman… but you can’t trust her. You can’t really trust anyone, not until I’ve stopped it all. It shouldn’t take me much longer, I just have to acquire some things first. Take care guys, I love you and I miss you and I never said thank you to you enough. So thank you, but uh… I gotta do this. Just, don’t get dead on me okay.’_

And that’s where the video stopped.

Casey and Sarah removed their ear phones and just stared at each other.

“That was weird,” Casey said.

Sarah nodded, “Definitely.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Casey and Sarah had been sitting in their hotel room, eating their room service meal when there was a knock at the door.

Looking at each other with some suspicion, Casey grabbed his gun and went to the door. He peered through the peep hole and was slightly surprised to see Alex Forrest standing on the other side.

As he opened the door, he scowled down at her, “Yeah?” he asked.

“Nice to see you too Casey,” she said, “Can I come in?”

Casey grunted at her before pushing the door back and allowed her to step inside. As she walked in, her eyes travelled over every surface, taking in every detail before landing on Sarah.

“Well isn’t this cosy,” she said with a smile.

“Can we help you?” Sarah asked her as Casey came and sat back down next to her.

“No,” Alex said, “I just came to deliver these,” she added as she pulled out the envelope, “General Clark isn’t very trust worthy and wanted them hand delivered.”

“So he sent you?” Casey asked in surprise, “Aren’t you a major now?”

“Yes and yes,” Alex nodded, “Like I said, Clark isn’t very trustworthy and he didn’t want anyone else getting their hands on these.”

Sarah reached for the envelope, peering inside, “It’s our passes for Orion’s holding facility.”

Alex nodded, “Your flight leaves at five hundred hours. Make sure you’re there on time,” she added before turning and heading for the door.

Casey got up to follow her and make sure she left.

“You know, it all makes sense now,” she told him as she opened the door.

“What does?”

“Why you were so eager to keep her as your partner,” she explained, “If I’d been fucking her, I’d not want her to leave either.”

Casey was too shocked to reply to that. She thought they were fucking? What the hell?

“What is it?” Sarah asked as he dumbly walked back to the table and sat down.

“What?” Casey asked, “Oh, nothing. Just something she said.”

“Well what did she say?” Sarah asked curiously.

“She thinks we’re fucking, that we always have been.”

“Oh,” Sarah said with a slight nod before turning back to her food, unable to prevent the blush from rising up onto her cheeks.

They sat in silence for a minute, just eating their food until Casey cleared his throat, “About that…”

“I don’t think it’s something we should talk about,” Sarah interrupted.

“Why not?” Casey asked in surprise.

“We don’t need the distraction,” she told him.

“Uh huh… and you don’t think it’s distracting us already?” he asked.

Sarah sighed, “I don’t know,” she admitted, “I just know that I’d rather wait until we knew what kind of future we were going to have before thinking about anything else.”

Casey stared at her for a moment, “So you don’t want to have sex then?”

Rolling her eyes, Sarah threw a fry at him, which he caught and ate.

“Fine,” he said, “Just make sure you keep your hands to yourself when we go to bed. I won’t be responsible for my actions if you get Little John all excited.”

“I’ll do my best to remember that,” she said with a smile before turning back to her food.

~*~*~*~*~*~

They both arrived at the small military airport at four hundred hours, both of them beyond tired. Sleep hadn’t come easily to them for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that they had actually made an effort to stay as far away from each other on the bed as was possible, leaving them feeling as if something was missing until eventually Casey gave in, rolled over and put his arm around Sarah.

That had been just three and a half hours ago. It was just as well they hadn’t been doing anything too strenuous the day before as neither of them were used to going days without sleep anymore. Hopefully they would be able to get some sleep on the plane, but that was doubtful, as they would no doubt have a lot of paperwork to read through.

As they entered through the security gate and drove over to the small ‘terminal’ that was there, neither of them were surprised to see a small welcoming party. However, while Sarah just held her head up high and prepared to meet them, Casey let out a small growl.

“Something wrong?”

“I served with that jackass,” he said, “And the other one used to be under me.”

Sarah looked at the two men who were waiting on them and leaned over to Casey, placing a gentle hand on his leg, “Yeah well, you’re still the better man,” she told him, giving his leg a squeeze and climbing out of the car.

Casey soon followed her, trying not to think about just how tactile they had become with each other in the space of a few days and what it all meant as he agreed with her, it was a distraction they just didn’t need at the moment.

“Casey,” the one who he had served with said, “You’re looking good… for a criminal.”

“What can I say,” Casey said with a shrug, “The prison bitches take good care of me.”

“John,” Sarah warned under her breath.

Casey sighed inwardly, letting his mouth fall shut and deciding to just let Sarah do the talking.

“Is there somewhere where we could get a coffee?” she asked.

“Yeah, Marshall here will get you one,” Casey’s old friend said as he pointed to a private behind him.

Sarah nodded, grabbed hold of Casey’s wrist and dragged him inside, away from the two men who appeared to like to gloat and with Casey on as little sleep as he was, she knew that it wouldn’t be good for any of them if they pushed him too hard.

They managed to get a quick coffee before being led onto the small plane. Sarah hated planes like this where you could feel every single movement that was made, but Casey seemed to be at home, stretching out his legs as far as he could in front of him while he clutched tightly at his coffee cup.

As they flew up into the air, Sarah tried not to let the turbulence disturb her stomach while Casey leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes, “Wake me when we get there,” he said

“Sure,” Sarah said as she turned to look out the window, only to see a set of propellers on the wing and so turned back round to face Casey instead.

However, before she could even ponder about what to do with the next hour while they flew to their destination, the ‘stewardess’ (she was really just a low ranking soldier) came over with a briefcase, “This is for you and Agent Casey,” she said, nodding at the sleeping man.

“Thank you,” Sarah said as she took it, waiting for her to leave again before she elbowed Casey.

“I’m sleeping Walker,” he told her.

“You can sleep later,” she snapped back, “We’ve got work to do right now.”

Sighing, Casey finally opened his eyes and sat up straight, looking down at the folder that Sarah was holding up in front of them. Basically, it was a list of do’s and don’ts on how to act while in Containment Facility 042B. Casey wondered just what facility that was exactly as he knew most of them by their nickname rather than their actual codename. For instance, Chuck had been in The Fox Hole aka Containment Facility 005A. Although, there were over one hundred and fifty different facilities and Casey didn’t know of all of them, he shouldn’t even know about The Fox Hole really, he had just uncovered some data on a past mission that he hadn’t told anyone about, not even his partner at the time.

“I think we have to sign this,” Sarah said as she held up a document.

“Agree to keep our mouths shut right?” Casey said as he took it off her.

Sarah nodded, “Not like we’re going to talk to anyone anyways.”

Casey snorted in amusement, agreeing wholeheartedly with her before pulling his pen out of his jacket pocket and signing the bottom. He probably should’ve read the fine print before he did so, but really apart from killing him, there wasn’t much they could do to him that he hadn’t already experienced before.

It took them the majority of their journey to read through and sign all the documents that required a signature, ensuring that they had learned all the pass codes that were needed as they wouldn’t get very far without them… even if they did have a security badge on or not.

When they were done, Casey handed all his things to Sarah who put them away neatly for him while he lay his head back on the seat. He heard her sighing in frustration at him, but ignored it as he was determined to get at least ten minutes of shuteye before he had to go to work again. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and running all over the country on hardly any sleep just wasn’t as easy as it had been four years ago.

However, sooner than he would’ve liked, he felt the plane making it’s descent and so he opened his eyes and prepared for what was likely to a rough landing. He didn’t mind them so much, was used to them after all, but Sarah disliked them. In fact, if the steel grip she had on his hand was anything to go by, she hated them.

“You alright?” he asked her after they had bounced onto the tarmac.

“Fine,” she nodded, “Just promise me we’ll drive to our next destination… or get a bigger plane.”

Casey grinned, “Well that’s not really up to me, but since it’s for you, I’ll do my best,” he told her, squeezing her hand one last time before standing up and leading the way out of there.

They were met on the tarmac by General Clark, which more than surprised them both.

“We have a problem,” he said, his face set in a grim line.

“What kind of a problem?” Casey asked, wondering what could be worse than having a homicidal asset on the loose.

“Major Forrest failed to check in with me last night,” he informed them before turning and heading towards the car that was waiting for them.

Casey and Sarah shared a look before quickly following him, “When was she supposed to check in?” Sarah asked.

“After she had delivered her package to you,” he explained, “I gave it a couple of hours, knowing that sometimes problems can arise. But when I got reports stating that you two had arrived at the airport without any issues, I knew something was wrong and sent a couple of agents to her hotel.”

“And?” Casey asked quietly, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

“Dead,” Clark informed them, “Shot execution style.”

Neither Casey nor Sarah said anything to that. They both knew exactly who had killed her, he had been in the area the day before after all, what’s to say he didn’t hang around. But to know that he had been so close, that he could’ve easily gotten to them… and of course, they couldn’t tell Clark about that. They had known he had been close, if they’d informed him earlier, then they may have been able to prevent Forrest’s death.

“Ragnarok was carved into her chest,” Clark told them.

“So she was part of it?” Casey asked before he could stop himself.

“Part of what?”

“Whatever this Ragnarok is,” Casey explained, “Chuck obviously has a list of those involved and has set out to eliminate them. If we can figure out who is on the list, then maybe we can try and pre-empt him, get to his next victim before he does.”

Clark looked at him for a moment, his face completely unguarded and showing Casey just how tired he was, that he just wanted it all to be over, “Hopefully Orion can help you with that,” he said, “In the meantime, I have a small team working on trying to figure out what the link between his victims is. They’ll let you know if they come up with anything.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

He was sitting down when they entered the room, hands clasped neatly in front of him, while he tapped his thumbs off the other. His head was bowed, studying the smooth surface of the table top as if he hadn’t just heard the door open and them walk in.

Together they sat down opposite him, waiting for him to respond to them first. However, he was a million miles away, or at least it seemed that way. Casey couldn’t help but think he was just as crazy as his son. But of course, he should’ve known better.

“How many has he killed now?” he asked quietly.

“At least eleven,” Sarah told him, “Maybe more.”

Stephen sighed and ran a hand through his almost completely grey hair, “It’s my fault you know,” he told them, “If I hadn’t invented that stupid thing…”

“You weren’t to know what would happen,” Sarah told him.

“Why did you invent it anyway?” Casey asked.

Stephen snapped his head up to look at him, “Money.”

“Money?”

Stephen nodded, “The amount of money they paid me to do it… Chuck and Ellie were sorted for life. But then, then our enemies wanted it, wanted the information, wanted me… I had to hide, had to protect them. Except I couldn’t. All the money got caught up in red tape. It was all for nothing.”

Casey and Sarah were silent for a moment as they watched Stephen work through his emotions, work through the things he had obviously been waiting four years to talk to someone about.

”Did you see my grandson?” he asked.

“Yeah we saw him,” Sarah said with a small smile, “He looks a lot like Chuck.”

Stephen smiled at that before his eyes became sad again, “I wish I could meet him,” he said, “And the new baby when it comes along too.”

“They won’t let you visit?” Sarah asked.

“Too dangerous,” Stephen explained, “For them, not me. It’s better for all concerned if I stay out of their lives.”

Sarah sighed inwardly and fought the urge to reach across and take his hand, as that was one of the don’ts and she was likely to get into a lot of trouble for it, so instead she lay Chuck’s file (or part of it) onto the table instead.

“Do you know where he is?” she asked.

Stephen pulled the file towards him and flipped it open, scanning the documents and photos inside as he shook his head, “I have no idea,” he told them as he focussed on one particular document, scraping his nail back and forward over it, as if using it to guide his reading.

“Do you know what Ragnarok is?” Casey asked.

“Ragnarok?” Stephen asked, glancing up at him, his finger pausing for a second.

Casey nodded, “He writes it next to his victims. We figured it was some sort of code name that he got out of the Intersect,” he explained.

Stephen nodded a little as he screwed his eyes shut, “I know it,” he said, “I remember it, I put it in there but I can’t…” he trailed off as he started to hit himself on the head as if trying to force himself to remember what it meant, “A group,” he told them, “It’s the name of a group, but I… I don’t know what for.”

Casey and Sarah sighed, “You have no idea why the victims are linked?” Sarah asked as Casey fought the urge to growl and shake Stephen to get him to remember.

Stephen looked at her then at Casey before looking up. Casey and Sarah looked up with him and noticed a camera on the ceiling.

“Right,” Casey said, realising that Stephen knew what they needed to know, but wouldn’t tell them for fear of others finding out.

“Find the Intersect,” Stephen told them, “He’ll be able to tell you more.”

And with that he snapped the folder shut and pushed it back at Sarah before crossing his arms over his chest and staring back down at the table.

Casey looked over at Sarah and nodded towards the door, knowing that they probably wouldn’t get anything else out of him now. He was a smart man and wouldn’t tell them anything if he didn’t want to.

“Well,” Sarah said as they stood, “It was nice seeing you again Stephen. Hopefully it won’t be as long next time.”

“Yeah you take care of yourself now,” Casey added.

Stephen looked up at them, “I’m glad they let you out,” he said, “You didn’t deserve what they did to you.”

Sarah and Casey gave him a nod before leaving. Although they didn’t know anything new, at least now they had it confirmed for them. They would just have to somehow talk to Chuck.

“What now?” Casey asked.

“I don’t know,” Sarah said with a heavy sigh as she flipped open the file to make sure it was all secure, “I mean we…”

“What?” Casey asked with a frown, wondering why she had frozen.

“Let’s go get some breakfast,” she suggested as she shoved the file into her briefcase, grabbed him by the elbow and started dragging him towards the exit.

Casey frowned some more, but didn’t argue as he could tell that she obviously had something important to tell him and didn’t want anyone else to hear.

“Well?” Clark asked as they approached him.

“He doesn’t know anything,” Sarah said, “Or at least, nothing we didn’t already suspect.”

Clark nodded, “He doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the data he inputs.”

“Right well, we haven’t eaten yet so we’re gonna go grab some food and regroup,” Casey said, “Any chance of getting a car?”

“Mitchell here will help you with that,” Clark said, “I have to get back home, it’s my wife’s birthday tomorrow and she’d string me up if I wasn’t there,”

“Sir?” Casey asked, stopping the man as he turned to leave, “Any word on Beckman.”

“No change,” Clark informed him, “I’ll keep you updated.”

Casey and Sarah nodded and watched him leave before turning to Mitchell. The young sergeant looked slightly nervous but led them outside where there was a car waiting for them.

“Bugged?” Casey asked him.

Mitchell shrugged, “Wouldn’t know about that sir,” he said, “But it’s likely.”

Realising that they would have to do something about that later, they took the keys off Mitchell and climbed in. Casey let Sarah drive as she was the one who wanted to talk in private and would be able to find what she was looking for better than he would.

It took them the best part of forty minutes to get to the nearest town let alone find somewhere to eat and by the time they did, Casey was ready to eat a horse.

They found a small diner, and while Sarah just ordered some scrambled egg and toast, Casey ordered the deluxe all day breakfast, which was supposed to be for two people.

“So,” he said as he sipped at the coffee he’d just been given, “What was your brainwave?”

“I didn’t have one,” she told him, “Stephen did.”

Casey raised an eyebrow at her as she pulled out and handed him the document Stephen had been reading.

“He must have had a pencil under his nail or something,” she said.

Casey nodded, reading the words and letters that Stephen had underlined.

‘He’ ‘New’ ‘Your’ ‘k’ ‘b’ ‘an’ ‘l’ ‘ck’ ‘bo’ ‘cks’ ‘6’ ‘0’ ‘92’ ‘fifth’

“Well?” Sarah asked, “You’re the code guy?”

“It’s not a code,” Casey said, “He’s spelling out words. I’m assuming ‘He’ is Chuck, and the rest is… New York Bank. Lock box 6092, fifth… I’m guessing fifth avenue?” he suggested as he handed it back over.

“You think there’s information in there about this Ragnarok?”

Casey shrugged, “There’s something in there, and if it’s coming from him, then we should probably check it out. Not like we got anything else to do but sit here and wait.”

“Yeah well at least the coffee’s not half bad.”

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

It had been easier than either had thought it would be to gain access to the lock box. It was as if the bank had been expecting them. They were escorted through the back given the box and left on their own to open it. And that’s when they realised they didn’t have a key.

“Don’t worry about it, these were the first kind of locks my Dad taught me how to pick,” Sarah said as she pulled out the pins from her hair and bent down, concentrating hard as she got to work.

Casey meanwhile, stepped back to enjoy the view. Now that it was kind of out in the open that yeah, maybe they did want to sleep with each other, he felt no shame in looking. He just wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold out until this was all over with. Four years was long enough, but inside he didn’t have pretty girls to look at, to share a bed with, to hold all night… he was likely to explode if he didn’t get his hands on her soon.

“Why don’t you take a picture,” Sarah said as she looked over her shoulder at him.

“Don’t tempt me,” he told her, his eyes twinkling with mischief, making her roll her eyes before turning back to the lock and making it pop open.

Smiling Casey stepped forward and placed his hand on her lower back as they both leaned over the box. Sliding the lid back, both of them weren’t actually expecting anything. So when they saw a thick file sitting in there, they were more than a little surprised.

With a frown, Sarah reached forward and pulled the file out. Knowing that they couldn’t read it in there because of the security cameras, Sarah gave it to Casey who put it away in his briefcase for later, while she lifted up the hand written note that had been sitting underneath it.

 _’If he sent you here then it means he trusts you and since he’s in charge of this operation then I guess it means we should talk. You have twelve hours from the minute you leave this building before I come find you. Make sure you’ve read everything in the file by then and destroy it when you’re done._

Sarah looked up at Casey who looked as confused as she felt.

“Well I guess we should get back to the hotel,” she said, “Read over whatever it is that’s in the file.”

Letting her lead the way, Casey couldn’t help but begin to worry, “We don’t know who that letter was from,” he hissed.

“You trying to tell me you don’t recognise the handwriting?” Sarah asked him.

“Handwriting is easy enough to fake. You know that as well as I do.”

Sarah sighed, “Well then we’ll make sure we’re armed. If anyone but him turns up then at least we’ll be able to protect ourselves.”

“I don’t like it Sarah,” Casey said as he took her hand and walked with her down the street to their hotel.

“No one said you had to,” she said, giving his hand a soft squeeze.

Neither of them said anything after that as they walked the couple of blocks to the hotel they were staying at. They were probably pushing things a bit considering that it was one of the big five star hotels in Manhattan, but no one had mentioned anything to them yet about their expenses, so until then, they would keep splashing out… unless they were going under cover that is.

When they got to the hotel, Sarah began to strip off, “I have to shower,” she said. Casey just grunted, not arguing with her since they had been up for ten hours already.

As he sat himself down at the small desk in the corner, he not so subtly let his eyes wander over to her, trailing over her long legs, perfectly round butt and the smooth skin of her back. God he wanted her so bad. And she, she knew exactly what she was doing to him too.

“You need someone to wash your back?” he asked.

“I don’t think we should let that file out of our sight,” she told him, “But maybe next time.”

Casey watched her saunter into the bathroom, mouth watering slightly as he did. She watched him over her shoulder, teasing him by making sure his eyes were drawn to certain parts until she was gone and the door was shut.

Sighing, he pulled his tie off and got ready to do some hard core reading.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Sarah was leaning back against the door, eyes squeezed shut and berating herself. She wanted Casey, badly. She hadn’t quite realised just how much until it transpired that he wasn’t exactly adverse to the idea himself. But they couldn’t right now, they needed to put all their energy into finding Chuck or helping him… she wasn’t exactly sure what it was they were doing now, but if they started sleeping with each other, then they definitely wouldn’t get any work done.

Pushing herself off of the door, she turned the shower on and let it heat up as she removed her underwear and pondered over why she was so attracted to Casey compared to four years ago. Sure she had thought he was handsome and had trusted him with her life, just as she did now. But was her attraction only there now because she’d been in prison for four years? Was it because Bryce was dead and Chuck insane and on the run, leaving no one else? No, it wasn’t that. She hadn’t actually thought about Bryce much since she’d been released. It had to be because he was... well, Casey.

As she stepped under the hot spray, she thought on how he had changed. Not only had he changed physically in that he wasn’t quite as big as he used to be (although, he was still very well built) and that his hair had started greying a little, making his blue eyes stand out more than they had used to, but personality wise, he was a lot more laid back now than he had been four years ago.

Before it had all been about the mission, about following orders, eliminating the enemy. But now, he seemed to want to know the reasoning behind why he was given an order, want the answers first before shooting, which he had actually started doing before he’d been arrested, it was just more pronounced now that he no longer had the responsibility of being a Colonel anymore.

And he was less mean than he used to be. He was still sarcastic and eager to tease, but back then he had usually meant it, now teasing was all it was and he was actually kind of gentle.

With a sigh, she shut off the water, realising that it didn’t really matter why she was attracted to him, there was no point analysing it all as it wouldn’t change anything. And right now, she had more important things to concentrate on than her impending romance with Casey.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Casey threw down his pen and groaned, “I need a break,” he said, “And some food.”

Sarah turned and looked away from the wall above the bed where she was pinning up pictures, notes, post its and connecting them all as they worked through the file. Inside were notes on all the people who had been killed so far as well as some on people who they had never heard of before, a FBI agent, some CIA agents and a couple more NSA agents, including (most surprisingly) Clark.

In the notes, it detailed their profession, who recruited them to Ragnarok and how long they had been part of it for. However, there was still no detail on what Ragnarok was, and what all their parts in it were, so they were still trying to figure that out at the same time.

“Order some room service,” Sarah told him.

Casey stood and walked over to the bed, “Is that really helping?” he asked, “We already know who recruited who.”

Sarah turned to him and fell down onto her knees, “It helps me process my thoughts,” she explained before nodding over to the table that was now covered in random bits of paper, “You have your methods, and I have mine.”

Casey looked back over his shoulder before turning back to her. He smiled a little before reaching forward and hooking his fingers into her belt loops and pulled her towards him.

“I still need a break,” he said quietly, his face mere inches from hers.

Sarah smiled back and rested her hands on his shoulders, “And just why do you need my permission for that?”

Casey shrugged, “Thought you could join me.”

Deciding to relent and give in to what they both clearly wanted, Sarah slid her hands up his shoulders to wrap round his neck, allowing her to pull him down as she closed the distance between them and their lips met in a soft kiss.

Both of them were obviously nervous as they kept it chaste and pulled apart almost as soon as their lips connected. However when Sarah looked up into those deep blue eyes, saw the emotions flitting across them she knew she had no reason to be scared and it seemed that Casey had come to the same conclusion as he wrapped his arms around her tight and pulled her flush against him before capturing her mouth in a deep and passionate kiss.

Sarah melted against him, holding on tight as she let herself get lost in the feel of his lips, his hands, his body. He kissed her as if she was his air, as if he needed her to survive and no one had ever kissed her like that, had never made her feel so important, so wanted with just the touch of lips.

Pushing forward to try and touch every part of her body with his own, Casey lowered them onto the bed, moaning softly when he felt Sarah’s legs wrap around his waist and her hands trail down his back to pull his shirt from his pants.

Detaching his lips from hers, he ducked his head and began to kiss along her jaw, down her neck, pulling back her t-shirt to expose the smooth, delicate skin he knew to be lying underneath for him to pay worship to just like the rest of her. However, it wasn’t enough and so impatiently, he pulled back to sit on his knees before dragging her top up and over her head, leaving her with just her bra for modesty, not that she was caring that much about modesty as she ripped his shirt open and pulled him back down on top of her for another, hard kiss.

Casey moaned into the kiss, trying his hardest to rid himself of his shirt as possible. Sarah helped push it off his shoulders before he frantically flailed his arms to shake it off. He managed one arm fine, but decided that the other could wait as he had to touch her once more.

He trailed his hand down her body, smiling to himself when he felt goose pimples on her flesh and her breathing speed up slightly in anticipation.

As she felt his hands on him, her own hands trailing up from his shoulders, round his neck and down his back, Sarah couldn’t remember why she had thought it a good idea to put this off. His touch was so soft, his kisses like heaven and the way he looked at her just set her alight with need. As far as she was concerned, they couldn’t get naked fast enough.

He kissed his way down her throat, leaving a small trail down over her breasts to her stomach, making her throw her head back and let out a lust filled moan.

As he felt her grip his head tight, her fingers desperately trying to find purchase in his buzz cut, he smiled and moved back up her body to kiss her again. She held his head still, placing soft kisses over his still bruised eyes and nose before letting go to allow him to kiss her properly.

However as he lifted his head, trying not to get too distracted by the feel of her flexing her hips against him, something caught his eye.

He froze, a deep frown setting onto his face.

“John?” Sarah asked, “What is it?”

Casey reached over her and grabbed a photo that had been lying underneath a pile of letters. It was a recent photo, too recent for his liking and it freaked him the hell out.

“Sarah,” he said quietly, “I think we’re deeper in the shit than we realised.”

Sarah frowned at him in confusion before snapping the photograph out of his hands for her to see for herself.

“Shit,” she hissed as she sat up, pushing Casey off of her, “How?”

“I have no idea,” Casey said with a defeated sigh as he looked at the picture once more.

It was a picture of he and Sarah with Clark, shaking his hand. It had been taken very early that morning so must have only been added to the file shortly before they got there.

“How did he get in to the base?” Sarah asked..

“Maybe he didn’t,” Casey suggested, “Maybe he’s working with someone.”

Sarah made a face of disbelief, but didn’t argue as it was the only thing that made any sense, “You don’t think he thinks we’re part of Ragnarok do you?”

“I don’t know Sarah,” Casey shrugged as he stood up and started to pull his shirt back on, “Hell, maybe we are and we just don’t know it yet.”

“Casey, he’s coming here in…” she checked her watch, “Four hours. What if he’s coming to kill us.”

“Well I guess you better pray that he makes it quick then.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

After fighting about whether they were part of Ragnarok or not and whether it was a good or a bad thing, Casey finally called a close to it all by declaring that he was hungry and stormed out the room to go get something to eat.

Sarah had been somewhat shocked, then pissed at him but then she realised that she too was kind of hungry and so called him to ask to bring her back something, which he said he was going to do anyway. It made her feel awfully domesticated, especially when he came back in and placed a soft kiss on her head as way of an apology for losing it. But she couldn’t complain, she liked the feeling of being ‘domesticated’ it was a nice change from the norm.

After they had eaten, they then began to sort out what they knew and what was merely ‘suspect’, the things that had been noted but not proven. Then taking the trash can out to the balcony, they started a small fire and began to destroy everything that had been in that file, including the picture of themselves. Chuck had asked them to do it for a reason, and they both knew from experience that it would be more than their lives’ worth to leave any of it lying around… or pinned to the wall above the bed.

“So now what do we do?” Sarah asked as she huddled next to him and watched the flames burn.

“Well we got just over an hour,” Casey said, his arms wrapped tight around her, “I was thinking maybe we could make good use of that big bed in there.”

Sarah snorted in amusement and looked up at him, “You’ve got a one track mind you know that?”

Casey raised an eyebrow at her, “I’m talking about sleep,” he told her, “Why what did _you_ think I was talking about?”

“Sleep, of course,” she said before pushing up onto her tip toes to kiss him.

Casey smiled and let her go, if a little reluctantly so she could go warm the bed up for them. He stayed outside and made sure the last of the documents burned to a cinder and that the fire was definitely out before stepping back into the room. She was already lying underneath the thick quilt, watching him with those intense eyes of hers.

Not having the energy to put on a show or waste any time, Casey quickly stripped down to his underwear and climbed in next to her, pulling her over to him so she was lying across his chest, their legs intertwined, making them appear to be one body instead of two.

Casey had his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight and protecting her from any intruder who may come a calling. However, as he fell asleep, he forgot to put his gun under his pillow like he normally did, leaving them completely unarmed save for their fists, which they both realised an hour later, was a huge mistake on their part.

The sound of someone clearing their throat had them both waking with a start and searching for a weapon, only to be frozen to the spot at the sound of that same person cocking a gun.

Looking up, neither of them were at all surprised to see him there, but it was still rather bizarre to see him looking so different yet so familiar at the same time, his big brown eyes so full of warmth as he smiled at them.

Chuck gave them both a nod as he tried to hide his triumphant grin, “So uh… hi guys.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“So you’re looking a little comfy,” Chuck said as he pointed the gun between them both.

“Chuck…” Sarah started as she sat up a little.

“It’s fine,” Chuck said as he stood up, “Four years locked away… it’s surprisingly understandable that you would end up in bed together. Even if you haven’t slept with each other yet.”

Sarah and Casey frowned, not liking how he knew that.

“Anyway,” Chuck continued as he clicked the safety back on his gun, “You might want to get dressed, we have a lot to talk about.”

Sarah and Casey hurriedly got out of the bed, grabbing their clothes and pulling them on as fast as they could, exchanging worried glances with each other as Chuck opened up the mini bar and pulled out a bag of cheetos and a can of coke. For all intents and purposes, he was the same Chuck. If it wasn’t for the shaved head and gun, neither of them would’ve suspected anything.

“So,” Chuck said as he sat down at the table Casey had occupied all of that day, “What has Clark been telling you?”

Neither of them said anything, as they weren’t sure what would set Chuck off and what wouldn’t.

“Casey?” Chuck asked, “You’re a pretty honest guy. Never sugar coated anything for me before, so you wanna tell me?”

“From the reports, it’s been indicated that you have developed a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia with homicidal tendencies,” Casey told him, “And that you have now killed at least a dozen people in your quest to stop or find this Ragnarok.”

Chuck shook his head, smiling a little, “I’m not schizophrenic,” he said, “Sure, I’m not exactly sane, four years of torture will do that to you,” he joked, making them both feel rather uncomfortable, “But I’m not schizophrenic. I take it you were watching videos with me and my psychologist right?”

Sarah and Casey nodded nervously as they sat down on the bed facing him.

“Sure I had bad days and good days, you try having your brain played with for that long and come out fully intact,” he said, “But I’ve been off my meds for seven weeks now,” he said, “And do I appear insane to you?”

“Kinda,” Casey muttered, making Sarah elbow him and Chuck laugh.

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Chuck nodded, “But you don’t exactly look the picture of mental health yourself there John.”

Casey shrugged, “Never have,” he countered making Chuck smile at him.

“Alright, listen,” Chuck said, “I was diagnosed by government employed doctors. Until I get diagnosed by someone not on the government payroll, I’m gonna keep the belief that I’m as sane as you two are.”

“But Chuck… how do you then justify killing all those people?” Sarah asked, “What is Ragnarok?”

“Easy,” Chuck said as he opened his coke, “I never killed them.”

Sarah and Casey stared in disbelief, “What?” the asked together.

“I. Never. Killed. Them.”

“You never killed them?” Casey asked, “But we saw your room, the pictures of the bodies, Beckman…”

“When I left the holding facility, they were all alive and well,” Chuck explained, “Sure I had knocked them unconscious, but I certainly never killed them. Just like I never killed the people Beckman sent after me, or attacked Beckman, or Alex Forrest for that matter.”

“Well if you didn’t, who did?” Sarah asked.

“I thought for you two, that would be kind of obvious,” Chuck said, “Clark killed them.”

Sarah and Casey sat like bookends, their jaws hanging wide open in shock.

“Or more accurately, he had them killed, cause you know, it’d be stupid for him to actually go and get his hands dirty.”

“I don’t understand, why would he kill them?” Sarah asked.

“Well, my handlers, I guess, he had them killed because it suited his purpose, made it look like I was the one who was killing the others, who he had been planning on getting rid of anyway,” Chuck shrugged, “If I had stayed in containment, I probably would’ve been killed too.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I flashed,” he told them, however, the look of utter disbelief on their faces made him sigh in frustration, “Look, the new Intersect… the newest one, is so much more advanced than the one you’re both used to. That was practically rudimentary compared to this one. I can flash at will now and on the most ridiculous amount of information, I mean really, I know what side the president dresses on. Why is that in my head?”

“So?” Casey asked, “You know even more crap than you used to. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Because it means I knew who was corrupt, who was selling government secrets, and who else knew about it.”

At Sarah and Casey’s silence, Chuck continued.

“Ragnarok. It was a group of nine people who all knew about Orion and The Intersect,” he explained, “There were others who were connected to them, who also knew, but they were the ones in charge. They were the ones who were using their knowledge for their own gain, blackmailing, dealing under the table, using their power as an excuse to terminate people who were seen to be ‘bothersome’. They were supposed to be protecting me and my father, but instead they were using us.”

“Right okay,” Sarah nodded, “But if they’re benefiting from your existence, then why kill each other?”

“Six months ago I stopped providing them with useful information,” Chuck said, “I was tired, I wanted to go home, I wanted to see my nephew, Morgan and Anna… I just wanted out and I figured if I was of no use to them, then they’d either put a bullet in my brain or let me go,” he explained, “Then when they went to my Dad and told them that the Intersect had stopped working, he informed them that there was no fault in the programming, that it was more of a hardware problem. So, they decided to eliminate me.”

 

“And that’s why you escaped?” Casey asked with a concerned frown.

“Kind of,” Chuck nodded as he tore open his cheetos, “I heard my handlers talking one day and they mentioned Clark. I wanted to know who he was, so I forced a flash and found out all his dirty secrets. I knew Clark wouldn’t be happy with that decision and would try to do something about it. I wanted to stop him, but I soon realised that if he killed everyone that knew about me and then I killed him…”

“You’d be free,” Sarah finished for him.

Chuck nodded before looking down at his feet a little in embarrassment.

“Why wouldn’t Clark be happy?” Casey asked breaking the silence.

“Because he was earning almost two million dollars each year from his knowledge about me. He had the most to lose out of everyone combined. If I died, then he’d have no secrets to sell, nothing to blackmail people with and would probably lose all his sway that he already had within the government as none of the other eight respected him.”

“Okay,” Sarah said, “But what about us? Why bring us out of prison to go on a wild goose chase?”

“Cause he knows that I know,” Chuck said through a mouthful of cheetos, “He knew I’d be after him and he figured that if he offered you both freedom that you would follow any orders he’d give you, including killing me. And having you out of prison, no longer under the constant watch of the government, he’d be able to get rid of you too.”

Casey and Sarah started in surprise, “He wants to kill us?” Casey asked.

“Hello! You two not only know all about the Intersect, but you know about me. You’re too dangerous to have around, especially if you were to team up with me again. So yeah, he wants rid of you.”

Casey and Sarah took a moment to let that sink in. Now that Chuck explained it, it made so much sense as to why Clark was being so supportive of them and basically giving them free rain, as well as why he would want them dead.

“So, you guys in?” Chuck asked, “We a team again?”

Both Casey and Sarah froze, neither of them certain on how to answer that. Casey was first to look away from Chuck, turning to look down at Sarah, who looked back up at him before realising that they really should talk about this first.

“Chuck will you excuse us for just a second,” she said as she stood up, grabbing Casey by the hand, “We just have to have a quite talk about… stuff. I think there’s some Danish in the mini bar if you want to help yourself.”

Casey let Sarah drag him to his feet and into the small bathroom, trying not to pay too much attention to the eye roll that Chuck had just given them as it was kind of weird and disconcerting.

“What are we going to do?” Sarah asked once she had slammed the door shut.

“Well, not hiding in the bathroom would be a good start,” Casey countered.

Sarah just glowered at him.

“Okay, okay,” he said with a sigh, “I know alright. We can’t trust him, but we can’t trust Clark either.”

Sarah nodded, “I know. I just… we know Chuck better, so we at least trust him more than we do Clark, right?”

Casey was silent for a moment as he thought about it.

“John?”

Casey sighed, “Yeah, yeah. We trust him more,” he nodded, “And stop calling me John will you, sounds weird when you say it.”

“So you’d rather I call you Casey?” she asked with a humoured smile.

Casey shrugged, “It is my name,” he told her as he reached out and pulled her close to him.

“Casey,” she warned as he pushed against him a little, but with no effect, which only made Casey think that she was exactly where she wanted to be considering she could easily kill him if she wanted to, “We have to be serious.”

“I am being serious,” he said, “We can’t completely trust him, he’s probably completely insane and off his meds so more dangerous than he was before, but… what have we got to lose?”

Sarah stared up at him for a minute, before reaching up and kissing him, “Okay,” she nodded, “Let’s do this.”

Placing a small kiss on her forehead, Casey took her hand and let her lead him back out of the bathroom to Chuck who had emptied the minibar and was currently working his way through a packet of Orios.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing you two on such good terms let alone holding hands,” he said as he pulled his orio apart and began to lick off the filling.

“Yeah well, never thought I’d see you with a shaved head,” Casey countered as he sat down opposite him.

Sarah passed by them to get her gun, before taking a seat next to Casey and facing Chuck, “So what happens now?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Chuck wanted to act straight away. Sarah wanted to plan things out. Casey was happy to do the planning as they moved, so that’s the compromise they came to.

Instead of taking the car that Clark had provided for them, they jumped in the four wheeler that Chuck had ‘acquired’, he climbing into the back, while Sarah and Casey got in the front. Chuck had asked Casey to drive as he had things he had to sort out, which was why Sarah climbed in the front with him.

“Well isn’t this just like old times, huh?” Chuck joked as he pulled out a laptop and booted it up.

“Yeah, real nostalgic,” Casey joked while Sarah checked her gun.

They were headed south towards the suburbs, intending to go for Clark directly, attacking him at his home. It had been decided that if he was eliminated, then they would all be free… so long as they didn’t leave any evidence behind. And they wouldn’t, because they were professionals; the best of the best… or something like that.

“So if we go in through the west entrance… we’ll be shot and killed,” Chuck said as he tapped rapidly on the keys of his laptop.

Casey glanced up at him in the rear view mirror, only a little surprised to see him hitting himself on the head and muttering to himself to ‘think properly’ amongst other things. In fact, it was more amusing than anything and that worried him more than the ranting did.

“Okay,” Chuck announced, “If we go over the south wall and cut through the garden, Sarah can cut the power to the alarms and then me and you, Casey, will head inside and up the stairs to Clark’s bedroom where I’ll kill him. Sarah you come back to the car and meet us at the west gate.”

“What about his wife?” Sarah asked as she looked behind him.

“We could just kill her,” Casey said.

“No,” Chuck told him, “That’s not… she doesn’t have any part in this. We’ll tranq her.”

“Fine,” Casey huffed, even though he actually preferred that idea to killing her along with her husband. Wasn’t her fault he was a douche.

“Where’s the power for the alarms?” Sarah asked as she turned to look at him.

Chuck lifted up the laptop to show her, pointing out on the blue print he had of Clark’s house. How he got it was a mystery to them both. Well, he probably had access to it in his head, but that didn’t explain how he had gotten it from there to the laptop. However, he had clearly studied it as well as the daily routine of the household to know when and where was the best time to start.

“So Chuck,” Casey began as Sarah familiarised herself with the layout.

“Yes Casey?” Chuck asked.

“You were in Hawaii right?” he asked, “You destroyed the poster. You didn’t ask Morgan to do it for you.”

Chuck sighed, “Yeah I was there,” he said, “I knew he would have the poster so I went there straight away, bypassing Ellie.”

“And the code?”

“Red herring,” he said with a shrug, “Well the one in my room at the base was. The one on the poster was a code me and Morgan came up with when we were in junior high.”

“So what the hell did you write on the back of it then?

“Just that if anything ever happened to me that I loved him, he was the brother that I never had and that I would be there with him in all that he did.”

“That’s kinda sweet Chuck,” Sarah said giving him a small smile as she handed back the laptop, “But it was pretty stupid of you to go to him. If Clark had went there…”

“I know, I know,” he said, “But I had stuff I had to give to him to give to Ellie and I just… I wanted to see a friendly face.”

Neither Sarah nor Casey commented on that, understanding the need to be around someone familiar, who you knew would watch your back no matter what. And that’s when Casey noticed Sarah shivering a little.

“You cold?” he asked her as he reached forward and put the heater on.

“Thanks,” she said with a thankful smile as she pulled her jacket around herself.

“You know, you two are kind of adorable,” Chuck said, “I don’t know how I never noticed it before, but you guys are like perfect for each other.”

“Probably cause you were too wrapped up in your own infatuation to think about the possibility of Sarah with anyone else,” Casey suggested.

“I would take offence to that, but it’s kinda true,” Chuck said as he slumped back in his seat, “Seriously though. If we make it out of this alive, you guys should definitely make a go of things. Think about how pretty your babies will be… unless their boys, in which case Sarah, I suggest having a c-section.”

“Thanks for the advice,” she said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes, trying not to pay attention to the way Casey’s eyes lit up a little at the mention of children.

“Right well, I haven’t slept in a couple of days,” Chuck said as he pulled out a baseball cap and draped it over his eyes, “Wake me when we get there.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

It had unnerved both Sarah and Casey as to just how laid back Chuck was about the whole thing. Last time they had worked with Chuck, he would’ve freaked out at the thought of tranqing someone. But now, he was insisting that he be the one to pull the trigger, that Casey was merely coming with him for back up.

However, his relaxed attitude was having a somewhat positive effect on them. It was making them both less worried about what lay ahead, what they were doing and what would happen if this was all a trap, which was one thought that kept circling through both their heads.

They arrived outside of Clark’s home just after three am.

They sat in the quiet for a few minutes, the car engine turned off as they watched the house. If Chuck’s observations were correct, the guard should just be passing them on the other side of the wall any second now… and there he was, the flash of a light signalling to them that he was taking his time as he walked past.

“Right guys,” Chuck said as he leaned forward, “Whatever happens, make sure you get back to the city and back into your hotel room before six am okay.”

“Chuck?” Sarah asked with a frown, “Why are you saying this?”

“Come on,” he said, “You know fine well I can’t come with you even if I do make it out.”

“Why wouldn’t you make it out?”

Chuck shrugged, “Guess I’m just a pessimist,” he said before turning to open the door, “Showtime.”

Casey and Sarah shared a look of worry before climbing out after him.

“Keys,” Sarah said as she reached Casey’s side.

Casey handed them over, placing them gently into her palm before holding onto her hand for a moment.

“Be careful,” he told her.

Nodding, she gave him a small smile, “You two,” she said before reaching up to kiss him.

Casey was reluctant to let go, but knew he had to and when he stood up straight, was a little annoyed to see a grinning Chuck standing there watching them.

“Like I said,” he hissed, “Adorable.”

Finally, letting their hands drop, Casey and Sarah stepped forward, following him over the wall and that’s where they parted ways. Sarah made her way round towards the east side of the house, while Casey and Chuck ran forward towards the dining room window.

When they got there, they checked their watches, waiting five seconds until the small laser just inside the window went off meaning Sarah had done her part. They managed to open the window without any problems, climbing inside and closing it again so that the next passing guard wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

“You know,” Chuck whispered as they quietly made their way towards the hall, “I’m sorry I never trusted you more.”

“What?” Casey asked.

“Back then. I should’ve listened to you when you told me it wasn’t safe, that I shouldn’t have went to the party…”

“Chuck,” Casey hissed, “As much as I appreciate it, this really isn’t the time nor the place. Save it for later.”

Chuck nodded, “Right, right,” he said, “Sorry.”

Casey shook his head in disbelief. His ass Chuck wasn’t a schizo, one minute he was all professional, the next he was all goofy… actually, that was pretty normal for him. Okay, so maybe he was all good then.

As quietly as they could, they made their way up the stairs and towards Clark’s bedroom. They clung to walls as they did so, hoping to avoid any creaky floor boards, which with an old house like this, they had in abundance.

They managed to get to the top of the stairs and half way down the hall without any problems. But then the sound of a toilet flushing hit their ears and they both noticed that a light was on in the room two doors down from their position.

They both froze and backed up against the wall as the door opened, the light clicked off and a teenage girl came wandering out – Clark’s daughter! They had forgotten about her, which had been a massive mistake on their part. She walked forward two steps glanced at them sleepily before doing a double take, freezing and screaming the loudest scream either of them had ever heard.

Casey lunged forward and grabbed her, wrapping his hand around her mouth to try and quiet her, but it was too late. Her parents had heard her scream. They had hit the emergency button and the lights were all coming on as the guards made their way into the house.

“You deal with her, I’ll deal with Clark,” Chuck said as he ran off down the hall leaving Casey alone with the daughter.

She wriggled in his arms as he looked about himself for what would be her room. He saw it behind him, a shock of pink peaking through the doorway. He started to drag her backwards, ignoring her increased struggling as she was obviously fearing the worst. When he got her into her room, he threw her down onto her bed. She looked up at him, tears flowing down her cheeks and begging him not to hurt her. He pulled his tranq gun out and hit her in the arm with it, knocking her out almost instantly.

When she collapsed unconscious, he moved forward, putting her into the recovery position and covering her with a blanket, giving her some dignity should the guards come running in before holstering his gun.

And that’s when he realised.

He had the tranq gun. The tranq gun they were supposed to use for Clark’s wife. Chuck only had live ammo in his gun so… he jumped as he heard three shots fired in succession, two close together with a small gap between them and the third and he realised, Chuck had killed the wife too.

Was it all a trap? Had he been meaning to kill her all along, had he actually killed the others and fooled them into helping? He didn’t have time to think on it. He could hear the guards running up the stairs now, so he turned to the window, yanking it open and climbing out, not bothering to close it behind him.

Thankfully, there were vines all the way up the side of the house, giving him something to grip onto as he climbed down. However, when he got to ground level, he soon realised that he was turned about, that he had no idea if he was facing north, south or what.

“Shit,” he hissed as he ducked low and thought about what to do.

He decided just to make a run for it. He could call Sarah later and get her to come find him. With any luck she had heard the alarm and disappeared. It would’ve been stupid for her to hang about while they were on high alert.

He got to the wall unnoticed, but as he made to climb over the wall, shots rained down at him, piercing holes in the stonework around him before grazing the back of his calf.

“Fuck!” he shouted as he landed on the other side, grabbing at his leg. It wasn’t fatal, but it hurt like hell. However, knowing that he couldn’t stay there, he did his best to ignore the pain and started running down the road, trying to get as far away from that house as was possible.

Ten minutes later and after collapsing in some bushes, Casey pulled out his phone and called Sarah.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” he told her, “About a half mile up the road from the house, hiding in the bushes.”

“In which direction?”

“I don’t know.”

Sarah sighed, “Guess I’ll just need to look for you,” she said, “You hurt?”

“A little.”

“And Chuck?”

“Not here.”

“Okay,” Sarah said, “Sit tight, I’ll be there as soon as okay.”

“Sure,” he said before hanging up.

He looked back in the direction he’d come from, hoping to God that it hadn’t all been a trick and that Chuck was actually okay. It would all be for nothing if the idiot went and got himself killed.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

_  
FOUR YEARS LATER   
_

Casey woke with a start, staring at the bright light that was currently trying to blind him.

“Daddy wake up!” a small voice sounded from near the window before he was kneed in the stomach by the owner of that small voice.

“Jesus Hannah,” he grumbled, “It’s Saturday.”

“Mommy said to come get you cause you have a video,” Hannah explained as she leaned over to stare down at him, her big blue eyes blinking at him with all the innocence her three years would allow her.

“A video?” he asked curiously.

Hannah shrugged, “And you said we could go swimming today,” she reminded him.

“Are you sure?” he asked as he sat up, “Cause I don’t remember saying that, I think I’ll need to investigate.”

“Daddy no…”

But it was too late, Casey had already started tickling her and there was nothing that could save her now… except maybe her mother.

“What have I told you about tickling her just after she’s eaten?” Sarah said from the doorway to their room.

“You’ve eaten?” Casey asked Hannah.

“Yup,” Hannah said with a grin.

“Well did you leave some for me?”

“Nope.”

Casey gasped in shock, making Hannah giggle some more before he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, “Well I guess I’ll just need to eat you then. Come on then Food, let’s go find a bowl big enough to put you in.”

Hannah giggled and tried to struggle against Casey’s grip to no avail.

Sarah shook her head at them, rolling her eyes as they made to walk past and Casey bent down to kiss her.

“Mommy help me!” Hannah squealed as they headed into the kitchen.

“No point begging for help now. The decision has been made,” Casey told her as he lowered her down off his shoulder and placed her on the kitchen worktop.

Hannah laughed at him but sat where she was put and poured his cereal for him as he got himself a coffee, Sarah meanwhile sitting on the other side of the counter.

“So we got a video?” Casey asked her.

Sarah nodded, “Was in the mailbox this morning.”

Casey raised an eyebrow at that since they didn’t actually have a mailbox. They picked up their mail every Friday at the local post office. And if she was saying they got a message in the mailbox, then there was only one person that it had come from.

“Suppose we should watch it then,” he said as he turned and let Hannah climb on his back so he could carry his cereal and coffee in his hands.

“You know she can walk,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, but this is more fun,” he said with a wink as he perched on the edge of the couch, allowing Hannah to climb out from behind him to situate herself between Casey and Sarah while Sarah plugged in the video and hit play.

“Uncle Chuck!” Hannah said as Chuck’s smiling face appeared on the screen in front of them.

She knew him from some videos he had sent before, but mostly from the picture of the three of them at Ellie and Devon’s rehearsal dinner, which had pride and place upon their mantel place, next to their wedding photograph and a photograph of Hannah when she was just an hour old.

Chuck (the one on the screen) was sitting with his back towards the sea, the sun beginning to set behind him, his curly hair (which had all grown back) was blowing a little in the wind, hiding his damaged ear from the camera.

Turns out that it hadn’t been a trick. Everything Chuck had said had been true. And that the third shot Casey had heard had been Clark’s wife, trying to shoot Chuck in the head, which she kind of did, except she didn’t, just clipped his ear instead of penetrating his skull. He’d never told them how he got out of there though, but being the Intersect, he probably found it easier than anyone else would’ve.

And after Clark’s demise, Operation Intersect was abandoned which of course meant that Orion was let go, however he went into hiding again so as to protect his family, only visiting them during the holidays.

As for Chuck, as the government was concerned, he was dead - killed a month after Clark by Sarah while trying to escape a warehouse in Chicago. After that, they were both fully pardoned which was when they decided to move as far away as was possible (New Zealand) and start a new life… together. Howeer they did go back to Illinois once a year to visit both Sarah’s sister Hannah (for whom their daughter was named) and his mother, who had slapped him hard when he turned up on her doorstep before hugging him even harder.

Chuck though, kept on the move, checking in with them every now and again, leaving random packages and letters at the post office for them, or having gifts for Hannah delivered to the house, but never actually turning up in person. Which was a shame as Hannah would probably like to meet him one day, and they would like for him to meet Hannah.

“Hi guys,” Chuck said with a wave, “Hey Hannah. You’re getting big. Soon you’ll be bigger than me,” he added, “I hope things are good. I’m missing you guys, I’ve got some good news to tell you. I got a job in a bar, it was interesting, met a few unusual character, one of them far more interesting than the others. Her name’s Laura. She’s been travelling around Asia for the past year and got a job in the bar with me and uh, a couple of weeks ago, we got married…” he said this as he held up his hand and waggled his wedding band at the camera , “I’d get her to say hi, but if anyone got hold of this… well anyway, she’d like to meet you so we might be stopping by at some point in the near future, so Casey, make sure you make a fresh batch of quiches each day just in case.”

Casey grumbled something about shoving quiches, where the sun don’t shine.

“Anyway, that’s all I really got to say at the moment, I’ll be able to tell you more when I see you. Keep safe, and Hannah, you keep being the little angel I know you are and you’ll make me the happiest uncle alive.”

As the video ended, Casey and Sarah turned to each other before watching as Hannah jumped up and started to pick up her toys and put them away.

“Hannah baby, what you doing?” Casey asked.

“Tidying,” she said as if it was obvious, “We need to make sure the house is nice for Uncle Chuck.”

Casey looked at Sarah who was grinning at him, “Well you heard her, better get baking Casey, wouldn’t want to disappoint Chuck if he was to show up.”

Knowing that he would get into trouble from Hannah now if he didn’t make some quiches, Casey growled at his wife, “You better make it worth my while,” he told her.

Sarah leaned over and place a soft kiss on his lips, “I’ll think about it.”

THE END


End file.
